Stoke: What price for a life?

One of the two kidney cancer patients being denied a wonder-drug by North Staffordshire's NHS has died.

Married mother-of-one Carole Buckley had been refused Nexavar treatment on the NHS by North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT).

The 48-year-old was still waiting for the result of her appeal against the PCT's decision when she died last week.

Mrs Buckley has told The Sentinel in June: "Unless the PCT decides I can have this drug, there is nothing else for me. I find it really scary that my life is in someone else's hands."

News of Mrs Buckley's death has angered fellow kidney cancer sufferer Angelena Buxton who is also being denied Nexavar by the same PCT.

The 56-year-old is paying £3,200 a month for Nexavar herself and has launched the Need Nexavar Now campaign to try to force the PCT's hand.

Angelena, who lives in Baldwins Gate, said: "If Carole could have gone on the drug for a couple of months it might have made all the difference. She has been going all this year without treatment.

"I know the PCT only has so many funds but it should preserve the sanctity of life. That's what doctors swear in their oath but it is not being done.

"Carole was a lovely person. We had spoken lots on the phone. She was frightened but it was the only option. I'm thinking now of her family - her husband and daughter."

After being refused the drug Mrs Buckley, who lived in Scholar Green and had her GP in Kidsgrove, had started pioneering stem-cell transplant treatment at Christie's Hospital, Manchester.

Angelena said: "She was very nervous about going in when I spoke to her three weeks ago. She had made the decision that she couldn't afford Nexavar.

"She had been told it would have been better if she could have gone on Nexavar first but because she couldn't afford it and the PCT wouldn't fund it they brought it forward."

Angelena's sister Gemma Austin, aged 62, of Trentham said: "I'm devastated. I believe she has been condemned to death by the PCT. Why couldn't they have paid for the drug?

"I didn't know her personally but I know what her and her family have gone through.

"What price is there on a life? Even if it didn't suit her the PCT could have let her try."

Nexavar is licensed for use in the UK but no national guidelines for its use have been issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).

How can any MPs seriously be considering gifting the EU billions more pounds a year - a 60% increase in payments - while auditors can't explain where the "majority" of the £3.5bn a year we already hand over has been going for the last twelve years, and while this kind of drug rationing in the NHS is costing lives?

People's lives clearly depend on that money. MPs shouldn't be content to vote it away to wasteful and already lavishly-funded organisations like the EU, or they can expect to pay the price for such irresponsibility come the next election.