Sandy Eglin says she's out of choices.
The Hawkesbury woman has stage 4 pancreatic cancer and is on a permanent regime of chemotherapy, clocking up a health bill of $100,000.
She was diagnosed almost five years ago, just after beating a separate bout of breast cancer.
"My choices are limited now going forward but I want to give somebody else more choices," she told Labor leader Bill Shorten on Monday as she talked with him about his plans for increased funding of hospitals and cancer services.
"If you get elected and do that it will be absolutely amazing; it will be life-changing for people."
Afterwards, Mr Shorten spoke of the choices governments have to make about spending, echoing a theme from his campaign launch speech on Sunday.
"When Mr Morrison says he can't afford to help people in the fight of their lives now or he can't afford to put back the money into Nepean Hospital, he made a choice," he said outside the hospital in Kingswood, in western Sydney.
"He just didn't choose the patients - he chose instead to defend unsustainable and indefensible subsidies for the top end."
A month ago, Mr Shorten announced that if Labor wins the election on May 18 it will give a $2.3 billion Medicare boost for cancer care.
Ms Eglin and her husband Kim have held a number of fundraisers for research, with the most recent pulling in $45,000.
They thought that was a small amount, compared with the millions raised for breast cancer, but the research institute they donated to said it was massive for them.
Mr Shorten also met briefly with two doctors and two nurses treating cancer patients at the hospital.
Nurse Louise Maher, when asked how she goes on after 30 years looking after people diagnosed with cancer, told Mr Shorten the patients always came first for her.
"In an election full of slogans, I think you've summed up for me what this election is about," the politician replied.
Nepean Hospital is in the marginal seat of Lindsay in western Sydney.
While Ms Eglin was a fan of what Mr Shorten was proposing, the latest Newspoll had people's rate of satisfaction with the job he's doing dropping four points and his preferred prime minister standing - consistently behind Scott Morrison - also falling.
Labor was still ahead of the coalition on two-party preferred votes in both the Newspoll and an Ipsos survey also published on Sunday night.
Mr Shorten said the true test would come in 13 days' time when the ballot boxes are filled.
Earlier, Labor announced hospital emergency departments could get 650 more beds, 1800 more doctors or 3700 more nurses under a $500 million plan to slash waiting times.
The opposition has seized on figures from the Australian Medical Association showing more than a third of urgent patients - more than a million people - were not seen on time in public hospital emergency departments.
