A CRUSADER UNTIL THE DAY SHE DIED
Cancer campaigner took battle to No.10
A GRANDMA who campaigned to have a ‘wonder drug’ approved for lung cancer patients has died after losing her battle with the disease.
Fiona Fail refused to give up without a fight when doctors exhausted all other treatments for her stage-four lung cancer.
The mum-of-five, from Blyth, Northumberland, was told that nivolumab was her “last chance” – but the drug is not available for lung cancer patients on the NHS, despite it being accessible in the USA and Scotland.
Fiona and daughter Terri Robson took their battle for nivolumab all the way to the top as they started a petition calling for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to “make the right decision” on whether lung cancer sufferers should receive the drug. It had previously ruled that the revolutionary cancer medicine was too expensive to be routinely used to treat lung cancer in England and Wales, although it is available for skin cancer.
Desperate to right what she saw as a terrible injustice, Fiona marched to Downing Street last year to hand over the petition, which had almost 173,000 signatures.
But after spending her precious last few months with her family, including husband of almost 10 years John, she passed away peacefully on August 5 at Wansbeck Hospital’s palliative care unit.
Paying tribute to her inspirational mum, Terri said: “The campaign was something she was so passionate about – people not being discriminated against because they had lung cancer.
“She was a bit of a crusader and she always felt she needed to defend people, she would always stick up for someone who wasn’t there.”
As Fiona neared her 60th birthday in March this year, the cancer continued to spread through her body.
Just a month later a case for the use of nivolumab, an immunotherapy drug, on the NHS was rejected by NICE because of its high cost. The body estimated it would cost £66,000 to £75,000 per year of quality life.
However in July this year, NICE said nivolumab, also known as opdivo, will be routinely available for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who have exhausted all other treatments.
Terri said: “Cancer is horrific, but in time the memories of her illness will lessen and the things that will stay with me will be her humour, her feistiness, her stubbornness and her kind heart.
“She kept on fighting to the end – she was a remarkable woman, beautiful both inside and out.”
Home care worker Fiona was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2014. But in 2016 doctors gave her the devastating news that the cancer had returned more viciously, and had now spread to her liver as well.
Fiona received support from a Macmillan nurse, and Terri has asked mourners to donate money to the charity instead of buying flowers. To donate, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fiona-s-family-fail
Fiona’s funeral takes place tomorrow at 11.30am at Blyth Crematorium.