There are no words that can thank you enough.

Today the NSW Health Minister announced 6 additional stomach cancer operations will be done this year to help with the immediate backlog, and she will continue to work on a longer term fix.

By taking the time to hear my story and signing this petition you have helped achieve this. I am so overwhelmed, and so humbled.

It’s a huge step forward. I’m actually in shock right now. I’m so proud of the people power, and I want to thank everyone who signed.

To know we’ve got some movement and progress on fixing the waiting times will hopefully take some of the stress and pressure off all 40 families on the waiting list. I know for me it’s been exhausting trying to fight stomach cancer as well as trying to convince the Health Minister to help fix the waiting times before it got too late.

I spoke up about this issue because, after waiting 6 months for urgent surgery, I just didn’t know what else to do.

Then Sam, a guy I had never even met, heard my story through social media and started a petition. I’ve never been involved with an online petition before so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  But the numbers just kept growing — right now it’s at 75,000 signatures — the media reported on it, and then we saw our power today.

As I said, there just aren’t words strong enough to express quite how grateful I am.

I hope if you ever find yourself in a really hard situation like this, I can one day repay the favour.

Nicole

P.S. Here’s some of the news articles about the win:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nicole-perko-campaign-cancer-surgery-to-be-performed-at-extra-hospital-20131017-2vnr7.html

http://www.2gb.com/article/surgery-backflip#.UmBdSmTbpvY

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/patients-