Mother wins fight for cancer drug on NHS

"Now I have hope": Nikki Blunden with her son, Thomas
12 April 2012

A mother with terminal cancer has won access to a drug that could prolong her life, after months of fighting.

Barking and Dagenham NHS Primary Care Trust had twice denied Nikki Blunden lapatinib, which can slow cancer's progress, on cost grounds, and because it didn't believe there was enough evidence it would work in her case. But after growing pressure on the Government to intervene, the former hairdresser from Dagenham has won her battle for free treatment.

She said: "I'm over the moon, but I'm anxious about how long the NHS will fund it. I just hope it's long-term."

Mrs Blunden, 38, who has a four-year-old son, Thomas, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and the disease has spread to her brain. A donor agreed to fund lapatinib privately, estimated to cost as much £25,000 a year, and she started treatment in June. She has since been told one of her three tumours has shrunk, and the cancer is not as aggressive as it was. But it was feared the money could soon run out.

Mrs Blunden and her husband Richard, 37, a fork-lift truck driver, argued she should get the treatment following the Department of Health's recent £50million injection into the fund for life-prolonging drugs. Barking MP Margaret Hodge raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions and Eliot Sims, Mrs Blunden's consultant at King George Hospital in Ilford, applied to the cancer fund directly.

"When I was told I had just months to live, my dream was to see Thomas's birthday and see him go to school. Now I want to live to see him take his exams, pass his driving test and go to university," said Mrs Blunden.

"I don't know if those things will happen but with this drug, I have hope now at least.

"But I am still hurt and angry that I have had to fight for my life. Cancer patients fighting for drugs is not acceptable."

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