Alternative cancer care treatment helps Audrey
£14,000 for operation but she wants it made available on NHS
A West Lothian mum has called on a pioneering cancer treatment to be made available on the NHS in Scotland after she paid £ 14,000 to get the surgery in England.
Audrey Sirrell, from Livingston, travelled to the Princess Grace Hospital in London to get Nano Knife surgery to remove cancer tumours from her breast and lung.
Audrey says the surgery, which destroys tumours, has completely changed her quality of life and wants to make people more aware that alternative treatments to radio and chemotherapy exist.
She said: “Before I got the Nano Knife I was getting radio and chemotherapy for the tumour in my chest and the tumour in my lung and I was really quite sick.
“After the Nano Knife treatment I’ve no pain whatsoever. The quality of life that I’ve had is like night and day so I want to highlight that it’s out there. It’s available in England but not in Scotland and not on the NHS.”
Audrey was diagnosed with Metaplastic breast cancer in December 2014 and was given the allclear in August 2015.
However, the following year she got the dreaded news that her cancer had returned.
Audrey said: “When I got the results of the scan I was told I had cancer in my breast and in my lung and I was told there was no cure for it.
“So when I was getting sick I just thought that there must be a cure so I trawled through the internet and eventually found Nano Knife.”
The Nano Knife destroys soft tissue tumours with an electric current and can be done quickly with patients often only staying in hospital overnight.
However, as it is not yet available on the NHS and only available in a few select hospitals in England patients have to pay thousands of pounds for the surgery.
Audrey paid £14,000 for her care during a small window of opportunity when her tumours had been shrunk from 10cm to 5.5cm and were small enough for the surgery.
She had hoped that NHS Lothian would reimburse her for the surgery as it was successful or pay for the further £10,000 operation she needs to remove a tumour from her adrenal gland - however NHS Lothian have so far said they will not pay for any of the treatments.
Audrey and her daughter Sophie (8) have now set up a Just Giving page to help them with the costs.
Tracey Gillies, medical director, NHS Lothian, said: “There is a process for new and innovative procedures to be approved for use in the NHS. The NICE Interventional Procedures Group looks at the safety of a procedure and how effective it is, to ensure that new treatments and tests are introduced into the NHS in a responsible way.
“Nano Knife treatment has not been considered by the Scottish Health Technologist Group or by NICE Interventional Procedures Group for NHS care outside a research setting. Therefore, it is not currently available within the NHS in Scotland.”
To support Audrey visit www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/audrey-sirrell