NHS stalwart is denied life-prolonging drugs ... because she lives in Wales
A TERMINALLY ill cancer patient who devoted her working life to the NHS is being denied a life-prolonging drug because she lives half a mile over the Welsh border.
Joannah Houghton, 47, has been told that the NHS in Wales will not pay for her to receive Avastin – even though it could give her precious extra time with her partner and two children.
But in a cruel twist, the healthcare worker, who lives in Chirk, North Wales, would be eligible if she lived three minutes up the road in England.
Last night, Miss Houghton said: ‘I feel upset, extremely angry and let down by the Welsh health authorities, especially when I have dedicated 22 years of my life as a health care professional. I’ve worked half my life for the NHS – yet it comes down to a postcode lottery, which is just not right.’
Miss Houghton, who has been forced to give up her job screening newborn babies at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, said: ‘I was told if I changed my address, the circumstances might be different.
‘I can’t afford to move. Also, they might still reject my request because it’s obvious I’ve moved just for the drug. Why should I have to move house to gain access to something that could prolong my life? It’s just crazy.’
Miss Houghton, who lives with her partner Tim Low, 42, and two children Ryan, 19, and Emily, 22, from a previous marriage, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016. The disease spread to her lymph nodes and lungs and doctors delivered the devastating news that it was terminal.
Miss Houghton has been told she has about seven years to live and travels across the border to Clatterbridge Hospital, on the Wirral, Merseyside, every three weeks for chemotherapy. But Avastin, which works by blocking proteins that help grow tumours, could give her extra months or years to spend with her family.
Miss Houghton applied to the Welsh government for special dispensation for the drug but was rejected last week.
‘To be told I can’t have Avastin feels absolutely awful,’ she said. ‘They are literally playing with people’s lives. I’m appealing the decision but the weeks are passing and I need this drug.
‘I’m not just doing this for me, I’m fighting for other patients in Wales who are too scared to speak out and who may suffer a similar fate in the future.’
Avastin is available to women in Scotland and England on the NHS through the Cancer Drugs Fund.
But the Welsh government’s All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) has recommended against its routine use. A spokesman for the Welsh government said: ‘The AWMSG examined the evidence for using Avastin to treat recurrent or advanced cervical cancer and recommended against its routine use.
‘Where a treatment is not routinely available in the Welsh NHS, but a clinician thinks that his or her patient is likely to gain significant clinical benefit from the treatment, they may make an Individual Patient Funding Request to the health board on the patient’s behalf.’