Hancock praises Daily Express as Nicole goes home
EXCLUSIVE
HEALTH Secretary Matt Hancock has praised the “crusading” Daily Express for taking up the cause of cystic fibrosis sufferer Nicole Adams.
Only two weeks ago the 28-year-old was struggling for every breath in intensive care.
But after eight Daily Express articles highlighting her plight she has now been given US firm Vertex’s yet-to-be-licensed wonder drug Trikafta.
The pills have boosted her health so dramatically that she has now been discharged from hospital completely.
Heartwarming
Mr Hancock tweeted yesterday: “So heartwarming to see this – lives being saved by advanced research, the Daily Express crusading and our NHS.”
The NHS and Vertex were involved in a long-running dispute over the cost of the firm’s life-changing CF drugs Orkambi and Symkevi.
Last year this newspaper waged a successful crusade for a deal and is now pressing for speedy access to CF “cure” Trikafta. Nicole said at home in
Newtownabbey, near Belfast, last night: “This is incredible. I hope now Mr Hancock acknowledges just how vital an urgent deal for Trikafta is in the UK.
“It has really helped me go from fighting for every breath to now being back at home and recovering with my family.
“For 90 per cent of sufferers, those able to take it, Trikafta really is their future.
“The drug must be available as soon as it is licensed in Europe this coming summer.
“Now Matt Hancock has seen what effect it can have on people with CF, he now must pick up the baton.”
Nicole was diagnosed with CF aged three months but enjoyed an active lifestyle until on a trip to Asia in 2014 she caught a dangerous lung bug.
Since then she has been desperately ill...until now.
Given Trikafta on December 21, she was out of intensive care in days and on a normal ward for Christmas. She finally returned home on Thursday.
She added: “I thought my life was ending – but now I have a new life.”