Businessman’s Swiss cancer treatment inspires him to help fund proton beam therapy

ONE of Britain’s wealthiest businessmen has pledged to boost Britain’s proton beam therapy offering after he was forced to travel to Switzerland for cancer treatment.

Ian Taylor, the head of the world’s largest energy trader, and chairman of the board of trustees at the Royal Opera House, said he had hoped to invest in services in this country after his own experiences with throat cancer.

The businessman, 62, is recovering from proton beam therapy to treat throat cancer, after two bouts of “massive” surgery. He said he was forced to travel to Switzerland, because there is nowhere in the UK offering the pioneering therapy, which can offer more targeted treatment without damaging surrounding tissues.

Currently the NHS funds patients to go abroad for proton therapy, if doctors decide that it is required.

Later this year the Christie Hospital in Manchester is due to open the first centre offering such treatment, with a centre in London due to open in 2020.

In 2014, the parents of Ashya King were jailed after taking their five-yearold son abroad in an attempt to secure proton beam treatment for him.

They successfully obtained treatment at a hospital in Prague after the NHS said that it would offer him no benefit over standard treatment. Mr Taylor, who stepped down as chief executive of oil trader Vitol in March, but remains its chairman, said his own experiences had spurred him to invest in ensuring access to proton beam therapy in the UK.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said: “I had to go to Switzerland for proton beam therapy. Anyway, there’s now going to be some in this country. Hopefully I’m going to dedicate a bit of money to making sure.”

The philanthropist said he was “not ready to kick the bucket yet”, and that he was hopeful of major breakthroughs: “I think we’ll probably beat cancer in the next 10 or 15 years,” he said.