{"id":358706,"date":"2026-03-22T02:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/358706\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T02:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T02:30:10","slug":"benfleet-woman-refused-australian-visa-over-cystic-fibrosis-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/358706\/","title":{"rendered":"Benfleet woman refused Australian visa over cystic fibrosis drug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When Regan Sparks was born 23 years ago, she wasn&#8217;t expected to live beyond her early 40s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But when a &#8220;life-changing&#8221; drug became available in 2020, the future for those like her with cystic fibrosis (CF) was transformed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For the first time, Regan, of Benfleet, Essex, began to imagine a long life for herself. Her health improved dramatically. She got a job, found a partner, started running, and booked backpacking trips.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She dreamed of working in Australia for a year, but the medication that changed her life proved to be the roadblock in making that dream a reality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">One of Australia&#8217;s visa requirements is a limit on how much a potential visitor might <a href=\"https:\/\/immi.homeaffairs.gov.au\/help-support\/meeting-our-requirements\/health\/protecting-health-care-and-community-services\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cost the community, external<\/a> should they need medical treatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This threshold is currently A$86,000 (\u00a345,700) over the duration of someone&#8217;s visa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Regan&#8217;s medication, Trikafta, costs A$250,000 (\u00a3133,000) a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The decision to refuse her a visa was &#8220;a kick in the teeth&#8221;, she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve never ever let my CF stop me do anything. It&#8217;s never ruled a decision or a dream that I&#8217;ve got.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Regan Sparks was born 23 years ago, she wasn&#8217;t expected to live beyond her early 40s. But&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-358706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}