NHS sentenced me to death

Last updated at 08:23 10 May 2007


Maureen Barnes feels she was left to die by the NHS after being diagnosed with the lung cancer

mesothelioma.

She was told her primary care trust would not pay for Alimta, the only treatment that delays advance of the disease.

Mrs Barnes had been in and out of hospital for 12 years with unexplained symptoms before tests

showed she had a cancer of the lung lining linked to asbestos exposure.

She may have inhaled the dangerous fibres because her first husband worked in the asbestos industry.

Mrs Barnes, 61, who lives with her husband Fred near High Peak, Derbyshire, was outraged after her cancer specialist was denied funding for the drug by her local primary care trust.

She said: "To find out you have a disease like this and then find you can't have the only licensed medication is a hard thing to face.

"For the first month I couldn't do anything. I felt in despair. But then I decided to fight to get the funding."

Mrs Barnes collected 6,000 signatures on an appeal petition and friends helped her pay £3,000 for her first course of Alimta treatment,

after which Derbyshire PCT relented.

She said: "I feel great and the doctors say I've had a very positive response. The drug has stopped the cancer growing and shrunk it from

round the heart area.

"But it's appalling that I was prevented from being treated because I have the wrong postcode. If I lived four miles down the road in a different PCT area I would have got it."

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