The pills that let writer get on with normal life

VIKKI Orvice, pictured, started taking one of the daily pills in 2014.

Three years on, she is still working full time as a sports writer and travelling the world covering events.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 but tumours had spread to other organs and she was told it was incurable.

Doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital in central London gave her chemotherapy and hormonal drugs that initially stopped the cancer advancing.

But in 2014 they discovered a tumour in one her vertebrae and offered her daily palbociclib pills as part of a clinical trial.

She suffered few side effects and was able to work full time and cover the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and the Olympics in Brazil last year.

The 55-year-old, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, said: ‘Patients should knock on their doctors’ doors and ask for this drug.

‘It enables you to live a normal life. Even an extra ten months will mean a lot to a

lot of people.’ Last year doctors decided to start her on a different course of treatment because they believed the drugs were losing their effect. Despite this, the pills had kept the cancer at bay for two years, more than double the ten-month average for those taking them.