Balloons are nice but not a substitute for essential cancer drugs

IT is breast cancer awareness month. I expect you probably know that. You can barely enter a shop right now without being confronted by an array of sparkly cupcakes or jolly pink balloons.

Not every store gets it right, either. M&S were lambasted by one breast cancer sufferer for promoting the awareness month with a pretty lingerie range that did not include even one bra suitable for women who have undergone mastectomies.

All cancer awareness is a good thing. It leads to earlier diagnosis, higher survival rates and the compassion and understanding of others. But there is a glaring, hideous irony in all this.

Right in the middle of awareness month, it has been revealed that hundreds of women in Scotland with terminal breast cancer have been denied four wonder drugs in the past year – two of which are available in England.

The latest decision was made this week and concerns a drug called Everolimus, which promises women an extra four-and-a-half months without their illness getting worse.

It would have helped more than 200 women in Scotland. The Scottish Medicines Consortium rejected it, claiming it was not ‘value for money’.

Four-and-a-half months of life is an aeon for those with a terminal diagnosis. It is a window of hope, an opportunity to spend time with loved ones, to put affairs in order and do the things you love the most. But stuff all that because, hey, it’s just not ‘value for money’. It’s the same reason given for the rejection of the other three drugs in the past 12 months. Breast Cancer Now

HERE in Scotland we have the New Medicines Fund, which works on a gruelling case- by- case, hang- bythe-seat-of-your-pants, nothing-is-guaranteed basis. Last year, a third of patients were turned down for drugs in one health board area alone.

It’s a desperately sad situation. There may be an increased amount of research going into how to treat breast cancer, but what’s the good of it all if the most critically ill patients – the ones who need it the most – can’t get the treatment?

This, to me, is the cruel thing about breast cancer awareness month. While it will undoubtedly help the charities involved and raise awareness among millions of women, all those pink balloons can do not a jot when it comes to the horrific postcode lottery that is Scottish access to cancer drugs.