Mum denied cancer drug funding has to sell her house

Debbie Mitchell, 39, said she was "left to sit in the corner and die" after her local primary care trust refused to pay for Sutent for her stomach cancer.

The drug costs £2,500 a month and to pay for it she and her partner John Forrester have now had to sell their £340,000 four-bedroom detached home in the Staffordshire village of Derrington.

"It's heartbreaking," she said. "We built the house ourselves from scratch - it's our dream home.

"We love the house, we love the village, we love the people, but we've been left with no alternative.

"I can't believe it's come to this. We live in such a cruel world."

Miss Mitchell was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, and had 40 per cent of her stomach removed.

In May last year she received the devastating news that the disease had returned in the form of GIST (gastrointestinal stomal), a rare mutating cancer.

South Staffordshire PCT paid for her to be put on the drug Glivec, even funding a double dose for her which would cost £58,000 for a year's treatment.

But in February, cancer specialists treating her said her tumours were still growing and recommended Sutent, which has been shown to shrink tumours dramatically and can prolong life for two years or more.

The drug, which is widely prescribed throughout Europe and the U.S., has already been licensed for use in Britain. But it has yet to be approved by the Government's drugs watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Until NICE guidelines are introduced, it is up to primary care trusts to decide whether to fund treatment with Sutent.

It is funded in parts of Britain, but Miss Mitchell's PCT refused to pay for it on the grounds of cost and clinical effectiveness.

Its decision came even though, at £29,000 a year, it is cheaper than the double dose course of Glivec. Some experts also estimate Sutent has a 50 per cent chance of working on tumours whereas Glivec has only five per cent.

"I can't take it, there's no logic there," said Miss Mitchell. "It is a postcode lottery whether you receive Sutent or not.

"We all put money into the NHS pot and therefore we should all be allowed the same treatment.

"My oncologists have written to the

PCT, saying that I should be given the drug. Yet the PCT has not bothered to look into the circumstances of my condition, despite all the evidence.

"What's the point in developing these drugs if they're not going to be used?"

She and Mr Forrester, 37, who co-own a limousine hire company, will move next month with her 18-year- old daughter Amy to a smaller £240,000 house they have bought in nearby Stafford.

Mr Forrester's four children stay with the couple every other weekend.

Miss Mitchell said: "We'll still have a mortgage because the money we've made off our house is going toward the cost of the treatment.

"We've got enough money for a couple of years of the drug at the moment. After that we'll have to remortgage the new house."

In a letter sent to Miss Mitchell, the PCT defended its decision saying: "The request for treatment was turned down due to lack of evidence of clinical and cost-effectiveness."