According to the latest NHS news it is said that the breast cancer drug Herceptin was approved to be given to all the breast cancer patients. But this is not happy news to the grieving family of Tamar Bailey. She is 26 year old and suffered from breast cancer. But NHS officials denied her the drug which led to her early death. She died due to bowel cancer.
By profession she was an advertising art director from Wimbledon, south-west London. She had to raise money to buy the tumor-shrinking drug Avastin. Cancer charities say that delays in the drug would result in unnecessary suffering and premature death. Ms Bailey's mother, Sona was still in shock but was very angry with the system and the individuals as she blames them for the death of her daughter. She was turned down by her local primary care trust, Sutton and Merton, when she went for Avastin which is one of a backlog of at least 20 other cancer drugs awaiting the verdict of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the NHS appraising body.Mrs Bailey said that her daughter raised £70,000 from friends and family for a private prescription of the drug that can shrink tumors by up to 40 %. Drugs that are still awaiting approval are Avastin, Cetuximab, Xeloda, Rituximab and Arimidex. Joanne Rule, chief executive of Cancerbackup, said that the Department of Health should help primary care trusts to fund or assist local areas to absorb the cost of new treatments. Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, came down strongly and said that money should not play an important role especially when a decision has to be made about saving somebody’s life.
