Amy* has a simple explanation for leaving Dunedin for private treatment for breast cancer.
"My kids worry every day if their mum is going to die. No little kid should have to live with that fear."
Amy was diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year and swiftly went through chemotherapy.
However, radiotherapy, a vital treatment to prevent the recurrence of the disease, was a different story.
The soonest she could be seen was after 11 weeks, and Amy felt she could not wait that long.
"Firstly, I just want to get this behind me - I don't want to wait months - but secondly, timing makes a difference and I was told by an incredibly lovely oncologist that if you give cancer time it will multiply.
"You need a bit of time to recover after chemotherapy and usually they like to start things within four weeks, but here I am looking at 11 or 12 weeks later."
Hence her difficult and expensive move temporarily to Christchurch for treatment - a desperate decision which the Otago Daily Times has been told dozens of Otago cancer patients have made.
"When you have children you'll do whatever you have to do to live. I need to be here for them in the years ahead," Amy said.
"I was told there was nothing I could do to hasten them seeing me sooner, but luckily I had the luxury of medical insurance. I hate to think of mothers who don't have that luxury."
Bridget*, another breast cancer patient, had her surgery in March.
Her first appointment is scheduled for next month, but she has no idea what will happen after that.
"They told me that they were so far behind, so the waiting time was longer ... and I don't know how long after that that my first treatment will be."
Bridget said she was getting on with her life, but the waiting and the uncertainty were a strain.
"The treatment is preventive, but you just want to get it done."
Corinne*, another woman with young children, had a mastectomy earlier this year after a shock breast cancer diagnosis.
"Ideally, the radiotherapy would happen six weeks after surgery, but I haven't got an appointment yet ... The radiotherapy is the part of the treatment which is going to make sure that the cancer doesn't return down the track."
She had considered going to Christchurch for treatment but wanted to avoid further major disruption to her work and family life, if possible
"At the moment I am in the dark, but if another month passes and I am still no closer to getting an appointment we would have no choice but to seriously consider that option."
With no family history of breast cancer and being young, Corinne had not considered herself at risk.
"There are still moments now when it almost dawns on me that I have breast cancer and that I have had a mastectomy - it feels not real," she said.
"I want to do everything possible to ensure I am around to see my kids grow up, and it feels like this delay is putting that at risk."
* The names of the three cancer patients have been changed.
