Wonder tablets are saving my life

GIVEN just weeks to live, cystic fibrosis sufferer Darren Waite is now beaming – after a wonder drug we helped him win has transformed his health.

And the Daily Express can reveal since last July, 170 CF patients in the UK have had free “compassionate-use” Trikafta from US firm Vertex.

Darren, 41, of Burnham, Bucks, had struggled to take a breath since November after infections left just 13 per cent of his lungs working.

In January, wife Jane, 42, pleaded in our paper for Darren to get Trikafta, and days later he started taking the drug.

Four weeks on his lung function has doubled, his heart rate lowered and he no longer needs to be given oxygen constantly.

Darren said: “Before starting Trikafta, I’d heard the incredible claims from others on it, but didn’t believe it would bring me the same results.

“Yet after four weeks on Trikafta I am practically off oxygen and I realise now this really is a miracle drug.

“I am able to exercise, after a year of wasting away, and it has also improved my appetite, energy and ability to breathe.

“Thank you to the Daily Express for their Trikafta fight as all CF patients should have this drug available to them.”

The drug is set to be licensed for use by the European Medicines Agency in November.

At that point it is hoped Vertex will submit all their data to NHS drugs appraiser NICE.

Jane said: “It still feels strange to say, that our life has nearly returned to what we call ‘normal’.

“We started 2020 not knowing if Darren would even see in the summer, and now we have been given the gift of extra time.

“Four weeks in and Darren’s lung function started at 13 per cent, then crept to 21 per cent and now is 25 per cent – and this is without exercise.”

Since Christmas we have helped Nicole Adams, 28, in Belfast, and Michelle Bamber, 37, from Farningham, Kent, get compassionate Trikafta.

But we recently highlighted the case of mother-of-three Karis Dean, 32, of Mansfield, Notts, who also desperately needs the drug.

She weighs just four and a half stone and only 16 per cent of her lungs are working.

Her doctors have submitted her request for compassionate Trikafta but are waiting to hear from Vertex, who told us: “Making decisions about requests for compassionate use of an unlicensed medicine is always complex.”