Outrage As Government Stops Funding Number Of Cancer Drugs
Pancreatic cancer drugs Abraxane is among those being removed today.
A Scunthorpe woman who lost her husband to Pancreatic cancer says removing the only available drug for sufferers leaves patients with limited treatment options.
Maggie Watts says she's "devastated" that life-extending Pancreatic cancer drug Abraxane is being taken off the Cancer Drugs Fund in England today.
It's one of 16 cancer drugs that the government's stopping funding.
Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all 22 common cancers and Abraxane - which is the only drug available for Pancreatic cancer sufferers - can help extend a person's life by months and in some cases years.
Maggie set up a campaign calling on the Health Secretary to continue funding the drug which has now gathered over 90,000 supporters.
She told Viking FM she's devastated the government's going ahead with the plans:
"I'm absolutely devastated that we've not had a significant response from the government. Having said that, we aren't going to stop campaigning and so the fact that the drug is being removed isn't going to stop us trying to get the government to listen to why this is so important to Pancreatic cancer patients.
"It gives hope to Pancreatic cancer patients of the possibility of living a while longer, I know it's not curative but we are a long, long way off being curative for Pancreatic cancer. This drug represents progress in a disease that has had no progress in over 40 years.
"My husband died in 2009, his mum died in 1969 and the medics could offer my husband no better chance of survival than they could offer his mum, such as the lack of progress so for me taking away Abraxane which represents progress is just wrong. How can we build on progress if they are just stopping it.
"It's proven to extend on average a person's life by 2 months but some patients have lived up to 2 years longer on Abraxane. So to anybody that's faced with a loved one dying, you'd give anything to have more time with them whether it be 2 days, 2 months or 2 years. It would have made a huge difference to me to be able to have more time with my husband."
Maggie's online petition can be found here:
https://www.change.org/p/don-t-stop-funding-only-drug-for-pancreatic-cancer#petition-letter
Demonstrators against the decision will gather outside the Department of Health today in protest at the decision.