A cancer sufferer has been forced to sell her home to pay for a potentially life-prolonging drug after being turned down for treatment on the NHS.
Nikki Phelps, 37, suffers from a rare form of cancer, and believes the medication Sunitinib, also known as Sutent, could help.
It is available through the NHS and costs £36,000 a year. Although effective at slowing down the growth of tumours Sutent has not been approved to treat multiple endocrine neoplasis (MEN1), which Mrs Phelps suffers from and which has caused aggressive tumours to form in her endocrine system.
Mrs Phelps, a former primary school teacher, who was first diagnosed with cancer ten years ago, has criticised the NHS for failing to offer her the drug.
Last week David Cameron told his Witney consituents that £200 million from his planned efficiencies savings would be put into a Cancer Drugs Fund for sufferers refused access to treatments by NICE.
Mrs Phelps and her husband Bill, who have two-year-old twins, Jack and Harry, have already spent their £6,000 savings on a two-month supply of Sutent and are now selling their £200,000 family home in Luddesdown, near Gravesend, Kent, to pay for the tablets which cost £100 per day.
Mr Phelps, 45, said he is also prepared to sell his business, The Cat’s Pyjamas cattery, if the money for treatment runs out.
He said: “Her life is now between the bedroom, the bathroom and the sofa.
“Emotionally she’s very strong. She has to be. There are two little boys who can’t have their mum sobbing around them.”
Mrs Phelps was diagnosed in 2000. Her father died from the disease the following year.
She had surgery in 2002 and was given the all clear shortly afterwards. She then gave birth in November 2007 through IVF treatment.
The following year she was re-diagnosed with the disease and in January of last year underwent surgery to remove a tumour weighing 11lbs.
Mrs Phelps says that doctors believe that cancers previously kept at bay by successive courses of chemotherapy ‘ran riot’ during her pregnancy.
She says doctors have also warned her that there is a 50 per cent chance one of her sons could contract the condition in later life.
Meanwhile, the family are receiving donations from friends at the mother-and-baby group which she attended who have set up an online fundraising page.
Mr Phelps added: “It’s a strange situation where you realise that just when you were starting to lose faith in everything, people rally round to help like this.”
NHS West Kent said Sutent is only for licensed for treatment of a form of kidney cancer called renal cell carcinoma and gastro-intestinal stromal tumours.
Dr James Thallon, Medical Director for NHS West Kent said: “NHS West Kent routinely funds Sunitinib for conditions approved by NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) .
“However, for certain types of tumour the drug is not licensed, or approved by NICE, and it is vitally important that we consider all the clinical evidence in deciding to fund a drug in these circumstances.
“We have to prioritise treatments that we have clear evidence will work over those where we can?t be certain, to get the best from our limited resources and to not endanger patients with unproven treatments.”
The Telegraph
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