The Oxford Mail reports today that a cancer sufferer fears he will die before he can finish his revolutionary eco-home because he has been refused what he believes is a life-saving drug.
Malcolm Cole, 67, from Fulbrook, near Burford, says he knows the Multiple Myeloma cancer he developed in 1993 will kill him eventually, but says a new drug called Velcade could buy him two more precious years of life.
That would give the former RAF officer the time he needs to complete a unique underground energy-saving home he has been working on for years.
However, although Velcade is available on prescription in Wales and Scotland, and in some prmary care trust areas in England, the South West Oxfordshire NHS PCT has denied Mr Cole the drug.
The trust said it followed the advice of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which said the drug, which costs £30,000 for a course of treatment, was not cost effective.
Mr Cole says he is in a battle against time to get Velcade and believes that without the drug he will die of Multiple Myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, before Christmas.
"Doctors have given an oath to try to preserve life, but they have the power over life and death and I feel they have decided to end my life.
Mr Cole said he had seen evidence which showed the drug had a 70 per cent success rate, but PCT spokesman Alison Brumfit said: "Decisions made on funding are based on the cost of something against how likely it is to be effective.
"There has never been a limitless pot of money and it's true that the less money we have got, the fewer treatments we can provide, but decisions are never solely based on cost."
Certainly funding can never be "limitless" - nobody believes that. But there could be a lot more money available for less "effective" yet nevertheless helpful treatments if Oxford's MPs weren't so keen on wasting billions more on the audit-failing EU.
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