Treatment brings hope – but at a personal cost
BREAST cancer sufferer Pam Davenport is sending a message of hope to other patients after a new treatment reduced her tumours by half.
Now the retired secretary, who is spending £3,300 on the drug Avastin every three weeks after NHS Stoke-on-Trent refused funding, is facing a race against time to receive the medication on the NHS before her savings run out.
Avastin is more commonly used to treat bowel cancer, but Mrs Davenport, aged 66, was advised to try it after six different treatments failed to have any effect.
Since funding for the drug, which is not approved by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, was refused Mrs Davenport and her husband Alan have paid for five treatments with Avastin, at a combined total of about £16,500.
After three months of treatment a tumour in Mrs Davenport's liver, which spread from the primary cancer in her breast, had shrunk while cancer in her chest has also reduced.
Now the couple know the drug is working, they plan to appeal against NHS Stoke-on-Trent's original decision.
Mrs Davenport, of Kent's Drive, Endon, said: "I want other patients to know that there is hope, this drug is working.
"Hopefully in the future they won't have to fight for it. Nothing else I tried has worked.
"Eventually, the money will run out. It is a race against time to keep going until, hopefully, I can get it on the NHS."
A spokesman for NHS Stoke-on-Trent said: "If the clinician or patient feels they have further relevant information available which has not been considered by the Individual funding Request Panel, they may ask the panel to reconsider the case specifically in the light of this further information."
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Comments
by Michael, Stoke
Monday, August 10 2009, 11:30AM
“What happens if you simply haven't got that sort of money to spend on treatment?”