Eileen Goodwin

The Otago-Southland Cancer Society has appointed Mike Kernaghan its new chief executive, and has moved on from the issues around the resignation of his predecessor, says chairman John Walsh.

Residents' ideas on deterring boy racers from using Warrington domain will be collected after Thursday's public meeting and sent out as a survey, Waikouaiti Coast Community Board chairman Alasdair Morrison says.

Emergency services were put on standby at Dunedin International Airport last night after the pilots smelt something "abnormal" on a flight to Invercargill, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said last night.

Unfunded chemotherapy drugs should be offered to paying patients in the public sector in Otago and Southland, rather than by doctors "profiteering" in the private sector, says Dr Chris Jackson, the medical oncologist making the case for the Southern District Health Board's controversial proposal.

Ashburn Clinic's new eating disorders contract from the Southern District Health Board goes some way towards alleviating its stressed financial position, as well as providing an exciting new opportunity, business manager Lindsay Smith says.

Using a bit of humour to pit buyer against buyer in an "emotionally charged" setting is the mark of a top auctioneer, says Dunedin's Chris Kennedy, who this week won a national auctioneer's title in Auckland.

Waikouaiti Volunteer Fire Brigade failed to muster a crew last month, for the first time in fire chief Anthony Nally's 28 years with the brigade.

A Port Chalmers woman says it is discrimination against poor people to prohibit those on Government-assisted home loans getting a top-up to access the home insulation scheme.

Comprehensive chemotherapy for private patients in Dunedin will reduce the need for travel to Christchurch or further afield for cancer sufferers, says Mercy Hospital chief executive Richard Whitney.

Crohn's disease sufferer Anna Rawlings Blackmore considered leaving her University of Otago course to move to another area where she could get access to a drug not funded in Otago.