Natural justice demands that this nurse is treated

THE tragic story of Laura Harris is testament both to the strengths and the weaknesses of the National Health Service. Laura herself is a marvellous spokeswoman for our NHS. She is a cancer nurse who is suffering from terminal bowel cancer. Early last year she was given only three months to live yet she astonished her colleagues by selflessly returning to work to care for her patients at North District Hospital.

It is this professionalism and dedication to duty that makes our fantastic health service what it is.

But there is another side to Laura Harris’s inspiring story which highlights the funding shortages that bedevil the NHS. Her life could be extended by a drug called Bevacizumab which is not available on the NHS. That is why she has had to raise £40,000 for two “blocks” of treatment which she hopes could add at least months, if not years, to her life expectancy.

Nobody understands better than Laura that the NHS’s resources must be rationed. As she herself says: “We have an ageing population and looking at the bigger picture why should cancer get any more than other illnesses?”

There are so many demands on the health service but any reasonable person would say that it does not seem like natural justice that a thoroughly decent person such as Laura Harris – who dedicates herself to saving lives and caring for the sick – should be denied this drug which will not cure her but could allow her more precious time with her family. The fact that she has to pay for this drug herself seems extraordinarily harsh.