- Hello, Kiwis. I'm Paddy Gower, and I have got issues. On this show we investigate issues big and small that are important to all of us. Tonight we meet the Kiwis with a rare form of blindness that has a magical new cure. Why can't we afford to heal them? And Karen attacks this programme's most common complaint ` why do gift cards, especially pricey cards, expire so damn quickly, or at all? Captions by James Brown and Faith Hamblyn. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 Tonight my issue is with blindness, specifically letting people go blind when we don't have to. Now, imagine if you were going blind and you couldn't see your loved ones, you couldn't look after yourself. Now imagine some brand new scientific magic came along that could save your sight. Well, tonight we'll meet two Kiwis for whom this is actually their reality. They are going blind, and that new magic treatment is something called gene therapy. It's amazing. It can fix problems that we're born with. In the case of this blindness, it's available in a drug called Luxturna. The problem is it's sold by a big global drug company called Novartis, and it costs NZ$1.5 million to do both eyes ` $1.5 million to save their sight. Now, in the same sad old story, Pharmac doesn't fund it, while other countries like Aussie do. Now, lots of us take our sight for granted. Personally, I do not. Two years ago, I nearly lost my sight in my left eye, and I actually thought for a time that I was blind. So tonight I'm asking, are we really just going to let people go blind, when we don't have to? This is an issue for all of us. And tonight I'm lucky to be joined by my great long-time friend and brilliant journalist, Newshub national correspondent Amanda Gillies. And I know it's an eyesight sort of thing, and usually it's Karen O'Leary, but it's Eli. Why? What? Who? - Yeah, normally you call her Karen 'Results' O'Leary. Tonight it's Karen 'Positive Result' O'Leary. She, unfortunately, has contracted COVID, so she is isolating, which means I've got the promotion. I'm on the couch. Poor old Courtney's at the desk by herself. - I'm all by myself. You've stolen my boy. But I am happy to see that, for the first time, you're wearing pants. (LAUGHTER) - All right, Amanda, that is something I would definitely want to be blind for, too. Amanda, your investigation into this blindness issue ` what have you found out there? - Well, we're just about to meet Rana, and she is a gorgeous woman. Now, this was actually my first real insight, Paddy, into how hard it is for blind people, especially for a single mum who is raising her three kids. To me, she's a hero, and I was honestly just blown away. So let me take you on the journey that I went on when I met her. - Go! (CHILDREN LAUGH) - From our view, Rana Brown's world is full, colourful and hectic. - Where are you, Te Arorangi? You have to tell me when you're kicking it, cos I can't see it now. - I'm kicking it. - OK, go. - Look out! - Oh! - Living in Hastings, raising three kids on her own. But this is how Rana sees the world. What can you see of me? - So, I can see your outline. A shaded shadow. But I can't see your eyes. They look like holes. - Go! - Rana has inherited retinal disease. - Leber congenital amaurosis RPE65 is genetic. It causes me to see the world very different. - Put simply, she's going blind, one of just three known people in New Zealand with this rare mutation. - It can cause me a lot of anxiety. There are some days where it can even set me into depression, especially when it comes to my kids. Now, I gave birth to them, but I've never been able to see them for who they are. No fine detail at all. And when people say to me, 'Oh, your daughter is so beautiful,' I think to myself, 'Well, is it true?' Because I can't see what you guys see. Mentally and emotionally, I've just learnt to sorta deal with it, because my kids need me. Haere mai. Hold the trolley, please. Good girl. - Navigating life and the supermarket, Rana is reliant on her young daughters. - Te Arorangi, can you guide me through, please? - Yep. I mainly make sure that she doesn't bump into anyone, as well as their trolleys. - Ready? I'm about to turn the trolley. Turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn. They're really good kids. They cope well, but that's probably because they don't know any different. Te Arorangi, can you point out where the prices are for this one, please? They've naturally had to help me when I couldn't do it myself. - $3.29. - Can you tell me when you see jelly, please? - Oh, up there! Up there! - OK. Thank you. Is this one pink or red? - Red. - People don't see her disability, because she makes sure she knows where everything is. - The third aisle over, you'll see the toilet paper and women's toiletries. It's that end on your left. - What could significantly help Rana's sight and stop her from going completely blind is a breakthrough gene therapy. - Nappy pants... for boys. OK, cool. - The treatment is called Luxturna ` one injection for life. - I will never get full sight. But it will enhance the things that matter. - If you don't have Luxturna, you will lose your full sight? - Yes. - How terrifying is that, Rana? - It's terrified me from the moment I became a parent. - But Luxturna isn't cheap. It costs about $1.5 million. Rana can't afford that, or even access it. Pharmac funding and approval is needed. - Uber. Does the license plate match? - Yeah, it's the same as that. - Thank you. Go! - Chuck it! Chuck it! - Yay! That's a one-in-a-million shot. - I love Mum, because she looks after me and Sissy. - Te Arorangi, that's cheating! I can't see you. - You're very good. And there is a treatment that could help Mum. How much would you love her to have that? - 100%. - Yeah. - If Pharmac could help with that one little bit, it would change my complete world. - What's your message to Pharmac? - There are some people that are born normal. This is actually quite emotional. But there is someone like me, who does everything she can for her kids, and to live a somewhat normal life. And to have... (SNIFFLES) an opportunity to... gain extra sight and to not live in fear of losing your sight... would mean the absolute world to me. (APPLAUSE) - So Paddy, as you see there, Rana is amazing. She's incredibly strong, and honestly, she just deserves a break. She has so many barriers in life. And I'm gonna give you one example. She had to move house, right? So she had to move across town. That means she wanted to keep her kids in their school, so she has to pay for their Ubers every single day. Those kids ` I'm gonna do a quick shout-out to them ` they are incredible. They are there for their mum every day. So grown-up. We just love them. Amazing family. - Yeah, amazing piece, and definitely sympathy for Rana and those kids, and I can say that we are gonna do everything tonight to try and get some sort of result for her. And speaking of results, Eli, you've always wanted a nickname from me, haven't you? - Is tonight the night, Paddy? - Tonight is the night. - Yes! - Eli 'Karen' Matthewson. - Whoo! (LAUGHTER) - I'm probably the first person ever to be excited to be called a Karen. Now, Karen did say I'm allowed to sit on the couch, but she doesn't want me to speak for her. So to introduce her piece, she's sent a video message. - Hey, Paddy, I always like to start with a question for you. So my question is this ` what do you think is the worst thing you could get given for your birthday? - That question, Karen` - I can't hear you. I think you're on mute. Anyway, I reckon the worst thing you could get for your birthday would be COVID. And luckily for me, it's not my birthday, because someone has given me COVID. My investigation this week is into potentially the second worst thing you could get your birthday ` Prezzie Cards. I'm looking at Prezzie Cards, gift cards, expiry dates, the whole shebang. I went down to Christchurch to meet my new best friend, Rosie, to find out all about her issue. The humble gift voucher ` for years the saviour of people on their way to a birthday party who forgot to buy a present. But these cards are making people so angry, maybe they should be called Strezzie Cards. I went to see my new best friend Rosie to talk about this prezzing issue. Rosie, thank you for inviting me here to your house ` or your mum and dad's house, whoever's house it is. First things first. I mean, how did you end up with a Prezzie Card? - This was given to me by my older sister, Karin, for my birthday earlier this year. - Karin? As opposed to Karen? - Karin, yeah. - It's a bit more kinda posh than Karen, isn't it? - It's a little bit more posh. It comes in this little package. - Yeah. - 'The perfect gift every time,' is what it says. $50, by the way. - Maybe we could do a little bit of a role-play. Could we use these lovely dolls? - Definitely. - Hey, Karin. How's it going? - Hi, Rosie. Good, thanks. How are you? - I'm great. It's my birthday. I'm having such a nice day. - I actually didn't have a lot of time, but I have gotten you this gift. I think you'll appreciate it quite a lot ` a Prezzie Card. - (GASPS) Karin, how lazy are you? All you got me was a Prezzie Card? - I forgot about it for a long time, actually, and it just sat in my wallet. And then one day I thought, it's time. And I went to use it, and it declined. And every other time that I've tried to use it, it's done the same thing. - You know this Prezzie Card you got me? - Yeah. What did you get with it? - Nothing, because I've tried to use it multiple times, and the thing doesn't even work. Honestly, this is a useless piece of plastic. It's quite emotional, actually. Did you find it a bit`? - A little bit, yeah. To unlock it, apparently you go on to the Prezzie Card website, enter this number, and then you enter the unlock code. Now, I don't know if you can see an unlock code on this package here. - Unless it's underneath that bit. - That would be embarrassing. - No, I just broke the packet now. Sorry. Luckily I was there to do the one thing a millennial can't do ` make a phone call. It's not even a free number. - It is going to cost up to $1.50. - 'Up to'? That sounds like National Party policy. - At minimum, it will cost 50 cents. - Please hold while your call is transferred to a live operator. - What do you reckon the wait time's gonna be? (RINGING TONE) - Oh. - Hi, Harvey. My name is Karen. And yes, my card number is 46-(BLEEP) ...58. - Yes, by my sister Karin. (LAUGHTER) - OK. - She said, I just searched my email for Prezzie Card, and there is nothing there. Sorry. - Just in case my sister doesn't have that email, what should I do then? - Yeah, I know what you meant. - Well, I really appreciate that. This was definitely worth $1.50. OK, Rosie. Leave it with me. I'm on the job. - I appreciate that. - Thank you for your time. Wish me luck. - Good luck. - Even though Rosie is my new best friend, I trust her about as far as I could throw her, which is probably a metre. Let's see if what she says is true. Is this Prezzie Card really locked, or can I get it to work? Just wondering if I could have a look at those ` the white goggle star goggles, please. Yeah, how much are they? - 44. - $44? Do they look cool? - Yeah, they look really good. - I'll take them, please, and I've got this Prezzie Card to use. (BEEP!) (DRAMATIC MUSIC) Sorry. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) - Yeah, it's pretty rough. And Rosie wasn't the only person who got in touch with us. We got quite a few emails about this. And yeah, if you can't get the card unlocked, you try and call them up, it costs $1.50 every time you ring them. - I totally feel their pain. Honestly, I got one of these cards from TV3 as a gift. When I went to spend it, I didn't have the code. I spent so much time and money trying to sort it out. I swear to God, I spent more money on that than the Prezzie Card was worth. It was nuts. - Yeah, I think it's time to go back to the way my grandma used to do it. Just a handwritten cheque in a card. Don't worry. Karen's gonna get some results on this one. - I hope it's better than a blank cheque. Now coming up, Amanda meets Flynn. He's 18, he's going blind, and his life is on hold, hoping for gene therapy. And Karen finds out what the voucher expiration rules are in New Zealand, and she's not happy. You won't be either. (APPLAUSE) (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - Nau mai, hoki mai, Kiwis. Welcome back to Paddy Gower Has Issues. I am Paddy Gower. And coming up we are going to meet Flynn, who, like Rana, is losing his sight. Then we take their desperate hopes to Pharmac. But now that pesky election is finally finished, News Deskers, your assignment today is to tell me about the vote that really, really matters out there ` Bird of the Year 2023. - Well, hold your hoiho there, Paddy. This time round, Kiwis are picking the bird of the entire flappin' century! It's New Zealand Has Issues. (APPLAUSE) - Well, we finally have our election result ` the special votes are in and yep, Labour definitely lost. Luckily, no one's rubbing it in. - Sure ` one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. 10. - Cool. We're nearly at your polling result. Just kidding. (GIGGLES INANELY) - Oh, at least Chippy answered the question. When they asked Luxon to count to 10, he said, 'We've actually got a lot of faith in our numbers.' - Now the election is all wrapped up, it's time to turn our attention to the voting for best bird. And let's hope we don't have the same controversies we've had in the past. - Well, it's an election scandal with allegations of illegal voting and thousands of ballots being dumped in the dead of night. New Zealand's Bird of the year competition has been rocked with revelations of a slew of fraudulent votes. - You know, the little spotted kiwi didn't even come away with the win. But that's mostly because he refused to work with Winston. This time around, we are picking the Bird of the Century. For me, it's me mum. - Aww! - But the candidates are all fighting. Takahe is back. Let's hope it doesn't use the same promotional video again. - Vote takahe, because they do 8 metres plus of poo a day, and that's just awesome. - Someone's got a tape measure and a lot of time on their hands. - Its PR agency was really scraping the bottom of the barrel. They're like, 'Can you fly? No? OK. Can you sing? No? 'OK. How long is your poo?' Not even bird poo was as divisive as when a bat won in 2021. - Bizarre. - No! - That's a bit weird. - Not really a bird, is it? - A bat is a rodent. - Oh, everything just got turned upside-down after this. Shortly after a bat won Bird of the Year, a human won the Squid Games! - Crazy. Two-time Bird of the Year kakapo is back. I think it's got a good chance, cos we all know and love it from this perfect clip. - Look, he's so happy. You are being shagged by a rare parrot. - Uh-oh! Maybe he shouldn't have got that parrot vagina tattooed on the back of his neck. - There goes our matching friendship tattoo idea. - Hey, whatever happened to that guy, anyway? - We actually looked him up. He's written 50 books. But he'll only ever be remembered for that video. Get out there and vote Aotearoa. Back to you, Pads. (APPLAUSE) - Thank you to my little news pukekos of the century. You really are my favourite birds. Now, earlier we met Rana, who is losing her sight. What she needs is a kind of gene therapy. But what the hell is that? It's time to go Behind the Issue. OK, so a gene is a teeny-tiny bit of us that helps build our body and tells it how to work. It's passed down to us from our olds. And your DNA actually has about 30,000 genes in it. Now, in a genetic disorder like what Rana has, one of your genes is mutated and can't do its job properly. Now Rana's bung gene is called RPE65. This is it here, and actually, all of us have got it. It's one of the genes that tells your eyes how to work. Now, people with Rana's gene issue eventually go blind. But now there is gene therapy ` brand new scientific magic. And doctors make a working version of the bung gene, then smuggle it into the cells, where it can do what it's supposed to do. All going well, you're sorted. So the wonder drug that we're talking about tonight, Luxturna, is the working RPE65 gene, injected into the back of the eye, just like this. You need it once for each eye. It can't cure blindness, but it can stop it from getting worse. But people like Rana need to get it sooner rather than later, to save the remaining sight that they've got. Now, Luxturna is just one kind of gene therapy. The scientific magic is here for a bunch of complicated cancers and other conditions under a bunch of complicated drug names. And it is coming for conditions like epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and hearing loss. What you see here may seem confusing, but it's actually bloody exciting. But there is a catch ` they are bloody expensive. Luxturna is one of the top 10 most expensive medicines on planet Earth. It is NZ$1.5 million for both eyes. Now, how many Kiwis need Luxturna? Well, actually, we don't know, because the picture we get of our eye health in New Zealand is pretty blurry. One reason is we don't have regular eye testing like this in our schools. P-A-D-D-Y G-O-W-E-R Has Issues ` I got it! But we don't also have a national vision survey, so we've got no idea how many people in this country have what kinds of vision loss. And there is no strategy whatsoever to improve our sight as a nation. We are literally flying blind. Now we are going to meet a young man called Flynn. He's got that same rare faulty RPE65 gene, and his vision loss might have been caught earlier if we had a better system. - (PLAYS LILTING MELODY) - AMANDA: Flynn Maguire is a southern boy. Old coal town Kaitangata is home. - I am legally blind. I'd say it messed up a lot of things for a while. It can get in the way of a lot of, you know, being a teenager and social gatherings and parties and all that. It's certainly stunted a lot of things like that, but I generally try to have a stoic mindset about it. I can't let it bother me, otherwise, you know, I would go insane. You probably can't tell, cos it's not a physical ailment that you can see. But, you know, it affects everything ` your education, your social development, your prospects. It changes everything, so, you know, it is a fundamentally different way of life. - He was just a baby when his mum noticed something unusual. - He would stare either at the light, or he could stare at the sun. And the fact that he could stare at the sun, I sorta knew that there was something wrong, cos most people cannot do that. It sorta took a very long time before anybody could actually diagnose it. - Flynn was finally diagnosed with the rare gene mutation four years ago. He was 14 years old. - It's tough, but we'll deal with it. It's like, we will deal with whatever happens. Sorry. - How badly do you want Luxturna? Oh, we're desperate for it. We desperately want it. Desperately. It's frustrating, because there is a solution to his problem, and we can see it, but we just can't reach out and grab it. But it's right there in front of us. - So Flynn and Rana are both desperate for Luxturna. For them, that would be a life-changer. So I'm back in Auckland, and I'm about to meet the woman who is leading the charge to bring it to New Zealand. - So, this is a bright light just looking through to the back of your eye. If you can just look at the side of my head. - This is Auckland ophthalmologist Dr Andrea Vincent, who has witnessed first-hand successful Luxturna surgeries overseas. - It's injected under the retina in the eye, and then it gets into our own cells and starts to copy itself. So what you're doing is keeping the cells that will ultimately degenerate healthy, and also the cells that were on the edge of destruction, it can rescue them. So what you're doing is, you know, improving people's vision. - There can be side effects. Total blindness has been reported in two patients post-treatment overseas. - Any eye operation carries a risk of blindness. But without a treatment, there will be blindness. - And Andrea wants Pharmac to fund it. And at $730,000 per eye, it's not cheap. Why so expensive? How do you justify that sort of cost? - I guess when you're developing a treatment that has just never been given, seen before, it has taken a very long time for it to be safe. You're putting a viral vector into an eye. It has been a very long, expensive road to get to that point. - The lifetime cost of patients not getting the treatment is about $5 million per patient, according to an Australian study. - When somebody says, how can you justify paying half a million dollars for one eye, that if we can actually turn around and say, well, actually this is the lifetime cost, economic, societal health cost of this eye disease, well, that's peanuts compared with it. - It's only three people. It's millions of dollars. We can spend that money on other drugs ` bowel cancer, breast cancer, you know, so many other things screaming for money. What do you say to that? - How can you decide that one person's disease is worse or more deserving of treatment than another person's? This is life-changing. These are young people who will go blind. I think it is reprehensible that we would not give a treatment to somebody who is going blind, when there is an intervention. - So, Paddy, the Kiwi surgeons here, they are trained up, they are ready to go. They could do the surgery tomorrow. They are literally simply waiting for the vials of Luxturna to be couriered here. I so hope that happens, because we do not have time to wait. Now is the time, and I really think it is the right decision. I hope Pharmac gets behind this, and I hope the three patients in New Zealand get this. - Yeah, just on that ` there's three patients identified. But retinal disease in general is actually massive, in terms of sight loss. That's what I suffer from. And other medicines are coming that use gene therapy, and we need to be up with the play, not behind, it in my view. Now, fingers crossed that we get some hope from Pharmac later on in this programme. And coming up, I meet comedian Josh Davies, who helps me understand what it is like to be blind, while I help him choose some smart casuals. And Karen pulls out all the stops to try to unlock Rosie's Prezzie Card. She even writes a very stern email. (APPLAUSE) In our house, it's not Christmas without reindeer pancakes for breakfast. Those look really... Good? Good. Yeah! Dad always tries to guess what he's getting. Bacon has to be in everything. And we always have Nana's mince pies. Apparently you use fruit mince but we use beef. It's kind of weird. VOICEOVER: However you do Christmas, we've got you sorted at New World. - Welcome back, Kiwis. This is Paddy Gower Has Issues, and I am Paddy Gower. Now, a massive part of the show coming up, when Karen finds out how long a voucher, legally, has to last, and you will not like it. And I find out a bit about what it's really like to be blind. But now it is time for my favourite part of the show ` No Issues. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) OK, I have got no issues with ditching the royals. Yes, you heard me right ` I want to.... - (BOOING) Yeah, hear me out here. I wanna get rid of the royal family. The Queen is dead. Now, I loved Queen Elizabeth, but we always said, after she died, that we would talk about the monarchy. And it has been 425 days, 15 hours and 28 minutes and 36 seconds, and we still have not. We've talked about everything else ` boring old rugby, boring old politics and whether Taylor Swift should come to New Zealand, which isn't boring and is important, by the way. Now, in fact, in my view, Taylor Swift coming to New Zealand would be way better than King Charles coming here. Seriously. - (CHEERING) - Yes! Yes, I knew it! Who would you prefer? The answer's easy, but the bigger question is this ` do we want this royal circus in charge of us ` Charles, Camilla, Harry, Meghan,... Andrew? - (LAUGHTER) - Wills and Kate, you are all right, but you still have got to go. Now, I've made a documentary about this, and you can see it on Tuesday night. It's forced me to think hard about what I'm saying right now. And, seriously, we are all subjects of the British Crown. Really? I am not subject to anyone, and neither are all the other Kiwis that I love and care for, which is all of you, by the way. So let's get rid of the Royals. Let's get rid of the King and put a Kiwi in its place. My only stipulation. Yes, put a Kiwi. - (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) - Kiwi King. My only stipulation is that they need to be a GC. - (LAUGHTER) - Just ideas. Just ideas. I've got no issues with getting rid of the royal family, and I've certainly got no issues with President Karen O'Leary. (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) - Wow. I'm all for it. I'm all for President O'Leary. Keep your sausage fingers out of our pies, Charles. (LAUGHTER) - Can I just say hell, no ` Prince Paddy, am I allowed to disagree with you on your own show? - More than welcome. - Well, then I'm all for the royals. I love the royals. - All right. - (BOOING) - No, do not. No, no booing. We agreed. I'm all for King William. - All right, all right. Now, Eli, what happens next in Karen's investigation? - Well, look, our investigation, I mean` - Oh, here we go. - The royal we now. Now, I usually do my Christmas shopping about 23rd of December, but I know there's a lot of losers already starting. But before you do, you should watch this ` Karen's interview with Consumer New Zealand. - Prezzy Cards are supposed to be a gift, but they seem more like a lump of coal to me. To find out if they're as bad as they seem, I'm here at Consumer NZ, and I've actually made Consumer NZ and Gemma wait while I do this. So sorry about that, Gemma. Hi. Thank you. - Hi. - Nice to meet you. Do you guys get many calls about Prezzy Cards? - Yeah, we do get calls about Prezzy Cards, and people are quite annoyed. - What are they annoyed about? - So, their expiry is about two years. So a lot of people, kind of, go, 'I got it, and then it's sat in my wallet and`' - Forget about it. - Yeah. 'Now I can't use it.' And then it comes with all of these terms and conditions that, kind of, seem quite unfair. - Like what, for instance? - Can I pull out my bit of paper? - Yeah. If you've got a bit of paper, you can pull it out. - Yeah? OK. - I'm really happy that you came prepared. - So, to buy the card, it cost $5.95. If you wanna get it sent to you, that's gonna cost $7.50. You'll get charged a surcharge of 2.6%, if you use it as a credit card, which is really excessive. If you lose it, you'll have to pay $10, plus courier fees, to get it returned. If you need it to be replaced overseas, $50. If you wanna call the automated customer service line, 50c. If you wanna actually talk to a real human at the customer service centre, that's gonna cost you $1.50. And if you wanna lodge a dispute, but that dispute is not held, they're gonna charge you $15. You'll be charged 3.5% for using a Prezzy Card if you have a foreign currency transaction. So there's quite a lot of bad things, I guess. - That's 10, and I feel like I've missed about three of them. - Yeah. - Speaking about vouchers in general, now, when a voucher does expire, the person hasn't used it, they've forgotten about it, where does the money go? - The money goes to the retailer. So they get to bank that money. - So, like, how much are we talking, like, in New Zealand, for instance ` like, how much money is not used in these vouchers? - We think it's about $10 million. - $10 million? - Yeah. That the retailers get to keep, and either it's expired or it'll be an annoying amount of money that's left on the gift card. Like, you've got, like, $4 left on the gift card, but then you've gotta spend an additional 16 or whatever. So they go, 'Oh, I'll just leave it.' - I mean, is there any law that says how long that should last for? - There's no law at all. You could have an expiry of, like, three months or six months, which is not a lot of time. And then within the law, they would be able to just pocket that money. If you look at overseas, Ireland and America, five years' expiry. - All vouchers, five years? - All vouchers, at a minimum. Some have no expiry. Even Australia is doing better than us. They have three years to expiry. At consumer, personally, we think it should be five years. - Now I've learnt how bad these cards are, it's time to use the biggest weapon I have ` a strongly worded email. Given a Prezzy Card by her sister, Karen. No success with getting it to work. At a cost of $1.50. Karen is not me; I am Karen with a hard A. And just a few moments later, Prezzy Card replied, prematurely solving our issue. Hey, Rosie. How's it going? - Hey, Karen. Good, thanks. - I've got some good news. I got the card to work. There is only $48 on it, cos I had to call Harvey back one more time. - Oh, OK. - But I also got you this chewing gum as well. That's, like, about $2 worth, so... - Oh. OK. ...it's together. Pretty good. So... - Thank you. - ...enjoy that. And I'm really happy I could help. - Yeah. That's awesome. Thanks, Karen. - Have a great day. - Cheers. - Result. - THE SCRIPT: # When you're standing in the hall of fame. # - (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - Yeah, so we got that response from Prezzy Card. Basically, what they clarified is that that four-digit code is to stop it getting stolen during the courier or from a mailbox, and also to stop fraud happening. They say they make it really clear on the checkout, but obviously some people do miss it, and they understand that some customers are aggrieved. Now, Karen, obviously she got a result. She got Rosie her Prezzy Card back, but now she's taking on all gift vouchers, and she's got a big plan. - Whoa. Yeah, I look forward to seeing this. Now, as I said, back to eye issues and problems with my own eyesight, I've got contact lenses on right now, because I'm shortsighted, and I can't see far. And I've also had, much more seriously, three detached retinas. Now, you've only got two retinas, obviously. So one of mine actually detached twice, and that's how I nearly went blind. I've also got glaucoma, that slowly steals your sight, and I have to take medicine every day to stop that. And because I'm getting quite old now, my reading eyesight is going as well. Now, all of this means that I am truly afraid of going blind. So I headed along to meet local comedian Josh Davies, a great man, to see what shopping would be like if I did go blind. All right, Josh, bro, we're on Ponsonby Rd. Time to do some shopping. How does a blind guy cross Ponsonby Road? - Well, for me, it's a bit tricky. I'm totally blind in my left eye. - Yes. - So there's a lot of guesswork. - Can you see that bus? - No, no. I cannot see a bus. - OK. Do not go. Let's go. Ponsonby road's clear. So, you have got a mean fit on right now. You look good. - Thank you very much. Yeah. So you're obviously a stylish man. - Oh, not at all. I don't really like clothes shopping in person. It's quite hard for me, I think, because a lot of the time, it's quite tightly compacted, like this. Everything's in there. Labels on items are often quite small. I can't even tell if the price is on there or on that bit. I have, kind of, tailored a lot of my life to be around avoiding those obstacles. I work in comedy, where I don't have to read a lot, and I can be on stage, and not seeing the audience is a benefit, sometimes. The reason that I'm blind is cos a gypsy woman cursed me. (LAUGHTER) Or what my doctor calls a rare medical condition. You know, I just don't know which one to believe. (LAUGHTER) - Come on out. - Here we go. - Yeah. No, you're looking good, bro. - Oh, thank you. - Do you like it? - I'm happy to take the recommendations of Paddy Gower, of one of our leading journalists. - Yeah, well, you know, style ` I've got style. - Yeah, you're a style icon. - Yeah, yeah, as a style icon, yeah, we'll keep that. You are blind, obviously, if you think I'm a style icon. - (LAUGHS) - Do you like this shirt, first of all? - Yeah. I like that. That's a nice pattern. - Oh, yeah, yeah. Gene therapy ` is that something that could help your sight? - I was told that my eyesight was gonna be like this for the majority of my life, and then get worse when I got into about my 50s, and about two years ago, when I was with an ophthalmologist, she told me that there was actually a gene therapy in human trials, or going into human trials at that stage, for this particular gene as well. - Wow. - The RS1 gene. Yeah. So there is a chance, in the not too distant future, that I could get some eyesight back in my right eye. - Wow. - Yeah. - OK. Well, I've got one brilliant shirt idea for you. - All right. - And this is gonna be the one. You're gonna rock it. - I'm ready for. - OK. Come on out, Joshie. Let's see. Yeah! Listen, you look good. - I think I do. I think I look hot enough to host a current affairs show. - (LAUGHS) (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - Josh is a good friend of mine, and he's actually such a funny comedian. The best interaction I've seen is some girl come up to him being, like, 'Oh, you know, 'I'm so blind now that I'm getting old and him just being, like, 'Yeah, I'm legally blind,' just revelling in the awkwardness. It's just so nice. - Yeah. And as Josh said there, you know, gene therapy is coming potentially for him. And there's actually, outside of the drug we're talking tonight, 40 of them in development. So it could be that Josh, um, gets a real helping hand from this as well. And wouldn't that be awesome! Now, coming up ` Karen goes absolutely rogue and invents her own kind of Prezzy Card. Turns out it's the worst gift card in the world ever. And Amanda meets the Australian doctor who saves people's sight in 40 minutes and doesn't understand why we can't do the same here. (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) Nau mai hoki mai, Kiwis. Welcome back to Paddy Gower Has Issues. As always, I'm Paddy Gower. Now, coming up ` Karen invents her own version of the Prezzy Card. And unfortunately, she gets it completely and utterly wrong. But now it's time to head back to our news desk. Eli, Courtney, I heard some bad news about these F45 gyms. Tell me more. - Yeah, that's right, Paddy, I hope you've stretched your muscles and sculled your pre-workout, cos this is The World Has Issues. (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) Well, if you don't know what popular fitness franchise F45 is, just ask the most annoying person in your office, and they'll tell you. - (LAUGHTER) - Basically, CrossFit. the F stands for functional, and 45 is how many minutes the classes are. Getting yelled at for 45 minutes ` isn't that the premise of this show? - (LAUGHTER) - In the last few months, more than 150 of their gyms have shut. But don't worry ` those empty gyms are gonna make amazing vape shops. - (LAUGHTER) - F45 started in 2012, in the spiritual homeland of Southern Hemisphere gym gays ` Sydney, Australia. (LAUGHTER) then the high intensity circuit training class, AKA my personal nightmare went on to open over 2000 gyms worldwide. Then in 2019, they secured a swole $450 million celebrity investment from Mark Wahlberg, who part owns both the gym and a burger joint, which is a bit like owning a skincare company and the Sun. (LAUGHTER) I know ` I love my Maori Moisturiser; it's SPF 45. - (LAUGHTER) - So, where did it all go wrong? Well, it turns out that a global pandemic wasn't great for business, especially if your business is a small, sweaty room. It also costs a lot ` it's 66 bucks a week for membership, whereas I pay $27 a week to not go to my gym. Over the last two years, they made a $582 million loss, and now they're being sued by their investors and celebrity backers for allegedly misleading them. Ironically, it's just not working out. - Their brand new CEO, Tom Dowd, has described the company's current state as 'a slow motion train wreck,' which is actually also one of the exercises you do at F45. He says he will turn the tide by using a shrink-to-grow method, like they did with Video Ezy. - Yeah. Shrink to grow is what I used to tell my ex-girlfriend was happening. (LAUGHTER) Franchise owners are now in total gym-bro limbo. F45's fate is not yet sealed, but they failed to submit their latest financial reports, so proof may be in the protein pudding. My advice ` just join a normal cult, like this one. Back to you, great and powerful Paddy G. (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) - All right. That was amazing. But what is next in Karen's investigation, Eli 'Karen' Matthewson? - Yeah, well, Karen found out gift cards can't expire, so she launched into a dastardly plan. - So, Prezzy Cards are terrible, but what if I came up with something worse? I've assembled a team of the most sinister corporate creeps I could find, to come up with the worst gift card ever. Shitty ideas for gift cards ` what have we got, people? Roll some names off your tongue. Brainstorm some things, and we've got Prezzy Cards. But what about sleazy? What do you think about that? Fair to middling. OK. ('NESSUN DORMA') (OPERA MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) Terrible. Terrible. That's not gonna work. None of these things are good ideas. They're all a waste of my... I've got it. Lezzy Card. Lezzy Card. So, this is, instead of a Prezzy Card, it's called a Lezzy Card. Rather than a Prezzy Card, I've got a Lezzy Card. - Hell yeah. - And it's actually got $10,000 on there. Which you can have and you can use. Might wanna check the expiry date, but do you wanna receive this Lezzy Card? - Yes. - So, where can I shop with this card? - Anywhere. Anywhere you can use a Prezzy Card. - Yeah. Right. - Only it's a Lezzy Card. There you go. Go for gold. Enjoy yourself. It does expire in 15 seconds. - Expiry 15 seconds from gifting. (LAUGHS) - So, I'm starting the timer. - Really? (LAUGHS) - You've got 15 seconds, yeah, to use $10,000. - But the porn shop's right there. - You're gonna buy porn with a Prezzy Card? (BOTH LAUGH) Quick. Better go. - OK. - OK. One, two, three. Yeah, sorry ` time's up! Sorry. I'm sorry. It's expired now. Sorry. So buy your friends a Lezzy Card this Christmas. It's the perfect gift card, available at Bunnings. - # I'm your Venus. I'm your fire. # - It's a pretty good card. And obviously Karen wanted to be here. She wanted to sell everyone her very evil Lezzy Cards, and they would be completely legal ` a 15-second expiry date. There's no law, but there was a bill drawn at Parliament, just before they took a break, and so who knows, maybe change could happen soon and legally mandate them to three years. That's what they're looking at at the moment. - Yeah. I think after what we've learned tonight from this amazing investigation, it's incumbent on the government to push that new law through. But I think they should push it up to five years, so that we're lined up with the rest of the world. And Lezzy Cards can have a five-year expiry date on them. They'll be awesome. Back to you, Amanda, and this blindness issue. What next? You've talked to the surgeon that's done it in Australia, haven't you? - Yeah. So we're heading somewhere where Luxturna is funded, and it's not that far ` just across the ditch in Australia. That is where the drug is funded and available. So I wanted to know how effective this operation is, So earlier this week, I zoomed Matthew Simunovic. He's the very first surgeon to perform the surgery in Australia. This was back in 2020, and his first patients were teenage siblings. - The surgery itself went very, very smoothly, and it was like a dream. There was a cast of thousands watching us, so it was a little bit more nerve-racking than your average case. And the patient then fared particularly well. So it made a real, real difference to their everyday visual function. - Like the little things most of us take for granted. - Their improvements in terms of their light sensitivity are improved by close to a hundredfold. So that's a phenomenal improvement. And how does this translate to their everyday life? Well, they say that they're able to do things that they've never been able to do before. So some examples are, you know, the first patient treated said that they could see stars for the first time. Also, they said that they're able to navigate under street lighting without the aid of a mobility cane. - He says the gain in vision should be long-term ` that goes against what Pharmac has been told, impacting the three Kiwi patients here. What's your message to Pharmac? I mean, how much of a game difference will this be for these three patients? - Oh, well, it's not my place to tell countries how to, um, partition their healthcare spending. However, I think it's pretty clear that this treatment is effective, and we have really, really good evidence that its benefit lasts longer than three years. In fact, patients are being followed up to a decade following treatment, and they maintain their improvements in vision. - And you'd think New Zealand would benefit from it? - Absolutely. - Dr Simunovic has already treated nine patients ` that's 18 eyes. The surgery takes about 40 minutes. It's incredibly delicate, intricate work, but it only needs to be done once. - We plan to deliver one treatment, um, you know, for a person's lifetime. - (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) - Wow. - Yeah. So, Paddy, I think it's fair to say that we don't normally like to take advice from the Aussies, we don't normally like to say that they are right, but in this case, he is 100% correct. And I truly, I truly hope that we do get Luxturna here ` for the patients who need it, it is a game-changer. - Yeah, totally, Amanda. Could not agree more. Now, coming up, once more, it is me against Pharmac ` will they help the very few Kiwis like Rana and Flynn, who need to have their sight saved? (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) Welcome back, Kiwis. This is Paddy Gower Has Issues, and I am most definitely Paddy Gower. Now, to Pharmac. Pharmac deferred the decision to fund Luxturna earlier this year, because they were uncertain about how effective the treatment was in the long term, but are they willing to take another look at it? I couldn't take Rana along with me, so I took her message to them. - There are some people in this world that... are born normal. And there is someone like me,... who does everything she can't for her kids. - She needs Pharmac to help fund the struggle. She's never gonna get it. What do you say to her? - Oh, look, absolutely, Paddy. I mean, we understand how difficult it is,... how difficult it must be, uh, to know that a potentially life-changing medicine is available overseas ` it's available in Britain, it's available in Australia, and it just seems just out of reach here. We've had this deferral from the committee to say, actually, we need more information; we need more certainty about this. This isn't a no ` this is a pause, while we look for more information. - OK. That sounds like there's a bit of hope there, then, for Rana and the others. - Absolutely. Absolutely. - So at the moment, your position is you want more information from the drug-maker Novartis? - Yes, absolutely. Less uncertainty is good ` show us the data. Share it with us. We make a commitment to put that evidence, and the current evidence, in front of our specialist ophthalmology advisory committee, probably in the first half of next year. So, yeah, that's our commitment. - So Pharmac will have another look at Luxturna ` that's what we're saying here, right? - An ongoing look. Absolutely. Yes. - So your final message to Rana, and others, from Pharmac? - There is hope. We are still going with this. And we are really very much driven by the evidence, but we understand how difficult this can be. But we haven't given up ` we haven't stopped anything. (APPLAUSE) - OK. So a bit of hope there that Pharmac will have another look at that, which is awesome. - I love hope, Paddy, and we have contacted Novartis. We asked them if there was any compassionate grounds for Rana and Flynn ` so basically could they get this treatment for free? They said no, but they did confirm that Pharmac, uh, has got in touch with them for more information. They understand the urgency, and they're assessing it right now. So we're gonna hold on to that hope and keep our fingers firmly crossed. - Yes, fingers crossed, all right. Thank you so much to Amanda 'Queen' Gillies. Of course, Karen 'Positive Result' O'Leary, who has Covid, and Eli 'Karen' Matthewson, with that new nickname you've been wanting. And, of course, Courtney 'Awesome' Dawson. (CHEERING) Now, tonight, my issue was with letting people go blind when we don't have to. So, for me, it goes like this ` remember Rana saying that Luxturna would change her life and Flynn's mum, in tears, saying it was just there, but they just can't get it. Now, Novartis won't help them, but Pharmac can make this happen. We just saw them give these people hope that their sight will be saved. Pharmac needs to change that hope into a reality. Now, it might seem expensive for the taxpayer, but not as expensive as these people going blind, which they will. Now, there are bigger issues here too. We are so desperately slow, when it comes to funding these life-changing new drugs, like gene therapies, and we need to better understand blindness in this country. But, for now, it's about Rana, and it's about Flynn, because, for them, every single day matters ` every day, their blindness gets worse. Just help them. I'm Paddy Gower. Those were my issues. And I'm gonna miss youse. Captions by Faith Hamblyn. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.