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The war hero who faces selling his home for the drugs to save his sight
Last updated at 08:07am on 12.04.07A war veteran has been forced to spend more than £4,000 of his life savings in a desperate battle against blindness because the NHS will not pay for his treatment.
Jack Strange, 85, who earned the British Empire Medal in the Second World War and was a policeman for 30 years, says health bosses are refusing to fund simple, effective drugs which can keep his eye condition at bay.
When his savings run out he will be faced with the choice of selling the home he shares with his 80-year-old wife Joyce or going blind.
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Jack Strange in wartime (left) and today
Mr Strange, from North Walsham, Norfolk, has age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition which leads to the loss of central vision and, if left untreated, can lead to total blindness.
He has spent the money in the past year on the drug Avastin, which is available privately to those who can afford it, as are two other treatments for blindness, Lucentis and Macugen.
In England, the drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has not yet given the go-ahead for either Lucentis or Macugen, both of which could have helped Mr Strange. However Macugen is already available in Scotland.
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It is one of several examples of the postcode lottery in services, with a number of drugs available in Scotland but not south of the border.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind has said that almost 20,000 people in England and Wales could go blind during the next year without the necessary drugs.
Mr Strange, who has the treatable 'wet' form of AMD as opposed to the untreatable 'dry' form, said yesterday: "Our savings will not last for ever, so if I have to keep paying, then at some stage I will either have to sell the house or stop having the treatment.
"I have paid in since the NHS was started in 1948 and when you need them they don't want to know you. It is very frustrating."
His wife said: "There are thousands of people affected. We were lucky because we had some savings, but a lot of people haven't."
North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, who is also the LibDem health spokesman, has taken up Mr Strange's case. Mr Lamb said: "If you have got the money, you get the treatment - it is as brutal as that.
"It is not an acceptable state of affairs when it comes to someone's sight. We know these drugs work and we know they can have a dramatic effect.
"Primary care trusts are reluctant to commit to extra spending because of the pressure they are under by the Government to address their deficits.
"From an individual point of view a person's quality of life changes dramatically if they lose some of their sight or go blind.
"And from a financial point of view it seems counter-productive for these treatments not to be allowed - after all, people who lose their sight become much more expensive to care for."
Mr Strange's case is one of many across the country.
Earlier this year former Labour MP Alice Mahon was involved in a legal battle with her local PCT, Calderdale in West Yorkshire, over Lucentis.
Bosses at Norfolk primary care trust said yesterday there was 'some hope' that treatment for AMD in the form of one of three possible drugs could soon be available in the county, but there were no guarantees.
Norfolk PCT's director of public health John Battersby said: "The more recent deliberations give some hope that treatment for AMD will be made available in Norfolk during the forthcoming financial year."
