Friends rally round to help Dunfermline cancer mum's plight
By Siew Peng Lee
Diane is pictured with husband Eddie and daughters Rose and Eve
A WEST FIFE woman with breast cancer faces losing access to NHS care if she chooses to pay for additional medicines that are unavailable through the health service.
And friends and family have launched a fundraising drive to help her.
Diane Wishart (38), of Thimblehall Drive, Dunfermline, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in February, after previously battling the illness and going into remission two years ago.
The aggressive cancer has already spread to her chest wall, lymph system, lungs and liver.
She is currently taking part in a clinical trial which compares two drugs, one of which is available on the NHS.
Guidelines suggest that patients lose their right to the normal package of NHS care if they pay for any form of private treatment.
But Diane is now fighting to be allowed to top up her chemotherapy once those drugs stop working, without losing that right.
The mum of two little girls, aged nine and six, explained, I was absolutely devastated when I was told the cancer had returned. I was in shock for a week but after that you still have hope, and hope that you get the treatment that you need.
I can't fault the level of care I have received from the NHS it's been excellent but I have been told that the only option I have on the NHS is chemotherapy. The NHS has not given me any other choices.
However, after discussing my illness with other women with triple negative breast cancer, it is clear that there are other options available to me but it would mean that I would have to pay for some of the drugs.
This is where it becomes impossible because the NHS then throw me off. Friends and family are currently fundraising for me so I can pay for these drugs, but the cost would become astronomical if I had to pay for the treatment I am entitled to on the NHS as well.
NHS doctors in Scotland cannot prescribe drugs for use which have not been recommended by the Scottish Medical Consortium (SMC) an independent body which assesses new drugs and treatments for the health service even if they have been licenced for use, unless they put a case forward to the health board concerned.
Diane, an environmental enforcement officer, added, The NHS should not say to people who want to pay for their own treatment themselves that they will lose their free health care.
It's a complete contradiction they are happy for you to get a private CT scan or choose a white filling at the dentist without losing your NHS benefits. It's making people die prematurely and at the end of the day, you are playing with people's lives.
Diane has been in touch with the renowned Leonardis Clinic in Germany and will likely set up a consultation to seek the treatment which could help inhibit the growth of her kind of cancer.
Among other drugs she is seeking access to is one called Avastin, which, although licenced, is not available on the NHS and is likely to cost around �60,000 a year.
Diane added, I can understand that there are costs involved the NHS might not think it's cost-effective to bring a drug on board if it works for 25 out of every 100 people.
But I could be one of those 25 people, and if I can't get the drugs on the NHS then I want to be able to pay for them. People in my situation do not have the time or the energy to fight for access to these drugs.
Just because a drug hasn't been recommended doesn't mean it's unsafe, but everybody should have the right and choice to pay for it and still get the NHS care they are entitled to.
The Diane Wishart Appeal, set up by friends, family and colleagues at Fife Council, has raised just over �18,000 to help Diane afford the drugs, which is likely to be at the end of the trial she is currently on.
Diane's husband Eddie (40), a senior buyer for Selex, said, They've been reviewing the ban on co-payments in England and Wales I believe a vote will be taken on it at Westminster in October and it looks very positive that this will be allowed there.
If Scotland don't look into this, people will be moving south of the border in order to stay alive for as long as possible. Our girls need their mother and I need my wife for as long as possible.
We are only asking the NHS for what we are entitled to, which is a free service.
The British Medical Association also earlier this month voted in favour of a Royal Commission review on the issue by summer 2009.
A Scottish Government spokesperson added, All NHS boards in Scotland currently have arrangements in place to consider individual cases for making new drugs available in exceptional arrangements where the SMC has not recommended a drug.
Patient safety and professional responsibility and accountability must be uppermost in these arrangements.
Last month, the Scottish Parliament petitions committee report set out a number of recommendations for the provision of cancer drugs in Scotland. The cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, will be considering these recommendations carefully and will respond in due course.
Diane has also put the issue to Ms Sturgeon, who replied that patients could not top up NHS treatment as a fundamental principle of the NHS is that care is free at the point of delivery.
Ms Sturgeon said, In the interests of patient safety and good clinical governance, the current position is that a patient cannot be both a private and an NHS patient for the treatment of the same episode or package of care.
For example, chemotherapy often comprises several different drugs given in combination. Therefore, if the drug in question not recommended by the SMC is given in combination with other chemotherapy drugs then that combination of drugs comprises the episode or package of care.
Top-up or co-payments where the patient pays only for the drug not available from the NHS are not allowed.
However, Diane said, If co-payment was introduced it would obviously only be allowed via the authorisation of your experienced oncologist.
I just want the best possible quality of life I can have and I want to know I did everything I could to give myself the best possible chance.
When you're a parent you think about these things I want to be there for my children and husband, and any chance you get, you grab it with both hands.
A fundraising event for Diane will be held on 23rd August at Abbeyview Community Centre, where there will be cake and candy stalls, a car boot sale, a tombola and a raffle.
Her colleague, Tom Weanie, has also organised "West End to Broadway", a musical production featuring the best of musical theatre, at Lochgelly Centre on the 25th and 26th September.
West Fifers who would like to help Diane can log on to her website at www.geocities.com/diane.wishart/DianeW.html or contact Ann Doris, treasurer of the Diane Wishart Appeal, on 738828.