Cancer mum dies fighting for drug that could have extended life
A POLICE officer died a month after launching an appeal to have a new cancer drug in the hope that it would give her precious extra time with her children.
PC Kelly Stabb, 39, wanted to prolong her final weeks with her two young boys after a devastating bowel cancer diagnosis last year.
She was given a ray of hope a month ago when she heard about a new treatment, binimetinib. The drug was approved to tackle a form of skin cancer in the US in June and tests are now being carried out in the UK.
But there are no plans to see how it performs with bowel cancer, despite a consultant telling her it has halted malignant growths in other patients.
Kelly tried to start a £200,000 funhow draising campaign so she could pay for the drug privately. Well-wishers had already pledged £43,000 when her devastated husband, Simon, announced her health had deteriorated and she was too ill to benefit from it. She died on Wednesday.
Mrs Stabb, of Paignton, Devon, was told she had stage four bowel cancer in January last year following a scan. She began chemotherapy and threw herself into raising money for charity Bowel Cancer West through sponsored runs.
But in February she was told the cancer had spread and her time was limited. At the time she told she had heard about binimetinib, produced by US firm Array BioPharma – but would have to fund the £10,000-a-month treatment privately as it was not available on the NHS. She said: ‘I will do whatever I can to be around for as long as possible for my children.’
The campaign was halted within days – despite raising £43,000 – because she was no longer well enough to take the drug. Mr Stabb, 41, a sergeant in the same force, wrote on her JustGiving page earlier this month: ‘Kelly became very unwell on July 29 and within a few days I was told Kelly had a matter of days, if not hours, to live.’
A spokesman for NHS watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said: ‘We have not been asked to appraise binimetinib for bowel cancer.’
‘Be around as long as possible’