I have just returned from a few days away in Eastbourne with my son. We did a fair bit of walking, had some excellent meals out, including a steam train ride on the famous Bluebell Railway Line, followed by a good play at the local theatre, about the German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War Two.

All good boys’ stuff. Although, having said this I am afraid to say I let the side down a bit as I had to call out an ambulance on Saturday evening after I had returned, as I had collapsed at home and was unconscious for a couple of hours, having suffered a seizure, which was a wee bit scary. I just hope this is not a sign of yet more cancer activity in my brain, which a recent MRI scan may be able to identify.

I have to say that the ambulance came very quickly and the crew were great. I was taken to the JR Hospital where I was given a bed for the night and seen by a doctor in the morning, and duly loaded up with anti-seizure medication to add to my ever growing medicines list.

My daughter came to pick me up and took me back to her house for a tasty meal and a game with my young granddaughter, who is the apple of my eye and has a way of making me forget all my troubles. So I returned home fully refreshed and ready to once again start taking another round of my cancer chemotherapy medication, Sutent, which a hundred of us patients had to win from the powers that be at NICE, back in 2008 after they had declined to make it freely available to patients due to cost.

Our top stories

 

I can still remember them saying “that it would only give us a few months of extra life, and it gave patients false hope.”

However, I have now had an extra three years, and I know of many other patients who have lived for very much longer than me thanks to Sutent. In fact we now have some 55,000 patients on cancer drugs under the Cancer Drugs Fund so it has all been a worthwhile exercise in the end. So we will continue to challenge the powers that be, and will fight for improvements in cancer treatments for as long as we are able, as this country still sadly lags far behind other EU countries in cancer survival outcomes.

As I have said in this column before, decisions are being made behind the scenes which appear to be leading to the gradual privatisation of our NHS. This is something we should all be keeping a close eye on, as it is a continuing threat to us all. For if it continues then we will soon need our credit cards to pay for treatment, as they do in US.

I and many other cancer patients hope this does not come about, as we will be left with inferior drugs and treatments, if any, by these profit-motivated businesses who will be keener to improve their returns for wealthy investors, than in healing the long term-sick. I have just read that NHS Trusts have a “black hole” of £500m in their finances with too much use of agency staff, targets missed for cancer patients and 147 Foundation Trusts fallen into deficit for the first time. Regulators say “they must get a grip”. Our NHS is considered to be the best in the World, and perhaps NICE could reappraise the cost effectiveness of the NHS middle and senior managers, then we may be able to hold on to our NHS. I do believe that our hard working frontline staff need to be better remunerated, as once again their pay has been frozen, which is completely unfair when the senior and middle managers are being awarded such huge salaries, and for doing what? If my own experience is anything to go by then I can honestly say that I wanted for nothing and was delivered into safe hands as soon as I had arrived at the JR and thank them for looking after me so well on such a busy night of the week. As you know we have written several emails to the Senior Managers at NHS England regarding their last minute change of mind regarding the proposed Oxford Gamma Knife Centre. We still await a response, so we have written yet again in the hope that we will eventually receive a full response to our challenging questions.

My friend Alison Beaver, who had breast cancer, has now completed her sponsored Sky dive for my favourite charity UCARE, and has raised £927 to date. Please click on the link if you still wish to sponsor her for this excellent cause.


  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.