Dunedin couple towing coffin to Parliament in bid to double Pharmac budget

Camilla and Julian Cox with their tandem bike and coffin in tow that they plan to ride to Wellington.
Camilla and Julian Cox with their tandem bike and coffin in tow that they plan to ride to Wellington. Photo credit: Supplied/Nicola Cox

A Dunedin couple is towing a coffin behind a tandem bike to Parliament in a call for Pharmac to double its current drug-buying budget.

Julian and Camilla Cox left Dunedin's central city Octagon at 9am on Friday and will bike south to Invercargill. They plan to travel up the country through Christchurch to Wellington over the next three weeks.

Their daughter Rachel, 19, has cystic fibrosis and needs modern drugs to stop her lungs deteriorating further - drugs they say are available in Australia and the UK, but not New Zealand.

The pair are gathering signatures for their petition along their journey, and Julian said the bike ride is for many more people in a similar situation.

"We can't afford to wait. It's really very important to us personally, but obviously not just the cystic fibrosis thing, Pharmac don't even fund things like EpiPens for New Zealanders."

He says there are over 250,000 kiwis on Pharmac's waiting list who need medicine, and feel there is a need to get that message out there.

On their campaign website, they say the coffin behind the bike represents New Zealanders who are dying because they don't have access to life-saving medicines.

The tandem bike they're riding on is a Burley Rock n Roll they bought over 25 years ago to cycle around the United States.

They will bike throughout the journey and take a ferry from Picton to Wellington.