Good news for cancer campaigner as crowd-funded drug works
Earlier this year Melanie Kennedy asked the public for their help to keep her terminal breast cancer at bay.
A Bangor woman who campaigned for a life prolonging cancer drug to be offered on the NHS, has issued an emotional thanks to the public.
"It's just something you can't even put into words. It's probably the most amazing gift anyone could give me. Everybody in Northern Ireland who supports me can regards themselves as my Santa."
Mum of two, Melanie Kennedy, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in 2014 and given five years to live. Earlier this year after the drug she was taking to prolong her life stopped being as effective she began a campaign to get access to a new treatment called Kadcyla.
It had been recommended by her doctors, but was not available on the NHS. Melanie turned to crowd-funding to raise enough to buy the drug privately and her supporters helped her raised £22,000.
And a recent scan revealed some fantastic news - a massive reduction in the size of one of her biggest tumours.
"This has come about because a lot of people donated money, but they have done so much more.
"They have given me a gift that money cannot buy - time with your family and friends and seeing another Christmas when you can never be sure whether you will or not."
Not long Melanie started Kadcyla was made available on the NHS , Melanie is investing the funds in a crusade to help other cancer patients throughout NI.
She says the treatment has changed her life:
"I never know, especially as I am reaching my five years since diagnosis. Originally my prognosis was five years to live. The fact that I'm still so well and bouncing around, doing the things I do... and now after this scan I am able to relax and take a bit of time off in December and look forward to Christmas with family and friends. It's just amazing."
Melanie may be taking some time off, but her fight for access to cancer drugs for everyone in Northern Ireland is still very much in the front of her mind.
And as a former MLA candidate for North Down, the political stalemate at Stormont is particularly frustrating:
"I have been at this two years - but there's nobody to listen to me.
"We were involved in consultations and we did speak to the Health Minister in January, but obviously there's nobody there now and anything we did achieve in the course of that is now parked. It's sitting on somebody's desk and no one can action it.
"It's a sorry state of affairs that this is the way things have to be.
"I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to our politicians to get back to work because it's not just cancer. It's the whole health system, it's also the education system. And there's lots of things that just aren't being addressed while they are not doing their jobs."
Melanie is promising a breakthrough scheme later this year.
"I know how difficult it is and nobody should have to go to the lengths that I went to, to still be here and that's what I'm trying to change."
The mum of two has been working hard to come up with a strategy that doesn't need Stormont approval.
After two years of campaigning, she says she wants to make things easier for patients here to access the drugs they need.
"We've done a lot of lobbying at Stormont. But we just aren't prepared to watch any more cancer patients suffer in the meantime.
"So we have come up with a scheme we are hoping will be able to help people without having to go through the Department of Health, or through the government and that will all hopefully be revealed coming up to Christmas."
And she had this message for fellow cancer patients:
"Keep going and never, ever give up.
"I think it's very easy in the dark days to lose hope and think nothing can ever get better. But take from my story - never give up hope because there could be something just around the corner."