Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Clinic steps in with offer to freeze eggs of Crohn’s sufferer
‘I am extremely grateful to Thanet CCG for taking this decision’
A woman who lost a legal bid to get NHS funding for her eggs to be frozen before she has chemotherapy will now have private treatment paid for her.
A clinic in London has stepped forward to support Canterburyborn artist Elizabeth Rose, 25, who fears a bone marrow transplant may make her infertile.
The news comes just days after a High Court judge dismissed a judicial review action which attempted to overturn a decision by the Thanet Clinical Commission Group (TCCG) not to pay for the procedure.
The judge said the former Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar pupil had failed to demonstrate that TCCG had acted unlawfully, although he did say it had “failed properly to address” recommendations on funding by Nice, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Similar egg-freezing treatment is available for single women on the NHS in other parts of the country.
Ms Rose, who now lives in Margate, had delayed chemotherapy treatment to fight the court battle over the £4,050 procedure.
She has a severe form of Crohn’s disease, which affects the digestive system, and doctors had recommended chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to bring the disease into remission.
The TCCG will now cover her transport and accommodation expenses for the private treatment.
Ms Rose said: “I am extremely grateful to Thanet CCG for taking this decision. I now need to continue my treatment and the offer by the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London gives me the best opportunity to do that.
“I am aware that I am lucky in this respect and I hope that Thanet CCG do revisit their policy to ensure that no other sin- gle women in my position have to go through this process to ensure that they can have children.”
After the High Court decision, the TCCG said it may review its policy on egg freezing.
Merry Varney, from law firm Leigh Day, who represented Ms Rose, added: “The CCG are currently considering their legal position following the court’s judgment that their current policy is unlawful.
“The wider implications of the court’s declaration is that, pending any successful appeal, any CCG who refuses women like Lizzy funding for egg freezing without an exceptionally good reason is acting unlawfully and will be open to a legal challenge.”