Mum pays for own cancer treatment after NHS stop drug trial in lockdown

A mum has resorted to having to pay for her own cancer treatment after a drugs trial which could have prolonged her life was cancelled due to coronavirus. 

Carol Player, 57, from Birmingham, was due to be given an experimental treatment on the NHS after surgery to remove cancer from her liver failed. 

But it was put on hold when the pandemic hit and now, desperate to live long enough to enjoy more time with her young grandchildren, she’s trying to fundraise to cover the cost. 

Carol said: ‘I’ve got three year old twin grandsons, Jack and James, who were actually born on my birthday, which is lovely.

‘I’ve got the boys to live for and I’m not ready to die, you know. I just feel that the NHS has deprived me of my treatment. It feels like my human rights have been taken away from me.

‘Why should I have to rely on the public who have also paid their contribution to help me with my NHS treatment?’

Carol, a former hairdresser, had originally been diagnosed with an ocular melanoma five years ago and had her eye removed in St Paul’s Eye Hospital in Liverpool.

In November 2019, doctors found the cancer had returned in her liver which meant she had to have part of it removed in February this year.

Carol said: ‘After the operation the surgeon told me my liver was very clean – ‘pristine’ were his exact words.

‘However, it was still running through my blood. So, two months later, I had a follow up scan and it showed deep within multiple areas it had travelled through the blood back into my liver.’

As Carol had already had a section of her liver removed another operation wasn’t possible, but she was then offered a promising cancer drug therapy called Delcath Melphalan, which is where chemotherapy is administered through the groin to saturate her liver.

The trial was due to be funded by the NHS in Liverpool at a total cost of £160,000, broken down into four treatments of £40,000 each. But then, when the pandemic started, many cancer trials in England were paused.

Desperate to continue with the trial, Carol was offered the chance to go private and cashed in her entire pension to fund the first round of treatment. Her son, Adam, then set up a Gofundme page to try to raise the money for the rest.

She received enough donations for the second round of treatment which, so far, has had a big effect on her cancer.

She said: ‘On September 13, I had a follow up scan to see how the first treatment had gone.

‘It showed up that three of my tumours have actually disappeared and four others had significantly shrunk in size.’

In two months time, Carol will have a follow up scan at Clatterbridge Hospital to see how the treatment is progressing, but in the meantime, she still needs to raise enough money to complete the last two rounds of chemosaturation.

Carol said she’s not only working to raise the rest of the money – but also awareness – that desperate cancer patients need to have their drug trials reinstated by the Government as quickly as possible.

She said: ‘The treatment has been taken away from doctors in Liverpool. They’re amazing, but they are devastated, absolutely devastated. They want the trials back up and running.

‘If I hadn’t taken it upon myself to get that first treatment, where would I be now? My tumours would have grown? I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

‘How many people out there are going through what I’m going through but can’t do what I did?’

Emlyn Samuel, head of policy for leading cancer charity Cancer Research UK, said that the Government’s decision to pause many cancer trials at the peak of the pandemic meant thousands of patients are likely to have missed out on experimental treatments.

Mr Samuel said the charity is working with the Government to ensure the trials get back up and running as soon as possible and will be protected from ‘further waves of Covid-19’.

He added: ‘The major disruption to cancer care caused by the pandemic has added additional stress and anxiety to many cancer patients’ experience.

‘It’s completely understandable that people look to any means when they are in extremely difficult situations and, concerningly, we’re starting to hear more stories of patients resorting to paying for cancer treatment.

Source:MetroUK By: Tom Williams

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