Kōrero: Health advocacy and self-help

In the 2000s the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of New Zealand argued that all children diagnosed with this genetic disorder should receive fully funded growth-hormone treatment. In 2006 Tom McLellan's parents, Rachel and Shaun, were paying $18,000 a year for growth hormone injections, because Tom was 5 millimetres too tall to qualify for subsidised treatment through funding agency Pharmac.