TRIBUTES continue to be paid to kidney cancer drug campaigner Stephen Dallison, who died just hours after marrying his fiancée.

Mr Dallison, 35, was the first person to campaign against the postcode lottery which denied sufferers the life-extending drug Sunitinib on the NHS in Oxfordshire.

He died a week ago, after marrying Olivia Glover at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.

A spokesman for Oxfordshire PCT, which eventually allowed Mr Dallison’s appeal for Sunitinib, said: “We were greatly saddened to hear of the death of Mr Dallison.

“Our sympathies are with his family and friends.”

Rose Woodward, founder of the Kidney Cancer Support Network, said: “Thank goodness Steve had the strength of character to fight the PCT’s appalling decision, but it was a battle he should never have had to fight.

“His battle for justice was inspirational to me and other kidney cancer patients who carry on fighting for their right to the best treatment available. He joined us to protest at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) HQ in London last August, and he will never be forgotten by those he touched with his gentle and caring manner.

“Nor, I have to say, will we forget the appalling way he was treated by the PCT.”

Mr Dallison hit the headlines in the autumn of 2007, when he was refused Sunitinib.

Because Nice had yet to rule whether the drug should be approved, Oxfordshire PCT had a policy of prescribing it only in “exceptional circumstances”.

Mr Dallison, a scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, successfully fought to overturn the PCT’s decision.

He later joined the Oxfordshire campaign group Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients (JKP) and lobbied Nice to order Sunitinib to be routinely prescribed on the NHS, which it did in February.

JKP chairman Clive Stone, 61, from Freeland, said: “Stephen’s quiet confidence, courage and demand for fair treatment for all led me to set off for Nice’s headquarters.

“It is hard to think it was only last August I sat and chatted with him and Olivia on the coach to London.”

Mr Dallison and Miss Glover had planned to marry in the summer, but Mr Dallison’s condition deteriorated suddenly last week.

Mrs Dallison, a trainee secondary school teacher in Oxford, said: “Steve was shy and modest –– it’s nice to know how much he did.”

* Mr Dallison’s funeral is at Corpus Christi Church, Margaret Road, Headington, on Friday at 11.30am. Well-wishers can make donations to UCARE (Urology Cancer Research and Education).