A grandmother from London, who has been fighting breast cancer for more than a decade, has been faced with the prospect of eradicating her life and moving more than 300 miles to Scotland to gain access to a NHS pioneer medicine.
The 68 -year -old Beverly Angel of Fulham explained that a “unfairist zip code” means that the medicine, which costs 8,000 British pounds per session, is only available in NHS in Scotland.
“I don’t really want to leave my family, but it’s a matter of life and death. I have no choice,” she told IndependentS
The interior designer who has breast cancer at stage 4 said that the drug Anhurtu (Trastuzumab Deruxtecan) helps to treat the HER2-Nice, which represents at least 55 percent of breast cancer, including the type it has.
But moving is a “difficult dilemma” for Beverly, which does not want to leave his family behind.
“I can’t bear it, I have a family here, I have grandchildren, I don’t want to leave them,” she said.
“I have no choice, you either sink or swim. You just have to try your best or give up.”
She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and a lump was removed from her left breast, after which she was told that her cancer was at low risk. He returned in 2014 and she had mastectomy and chemotherapy.
Beverly does not want to leave his family but says this move is “life or death” (Beverly Angel)
For years, she did not suffer from symptoms until no more lumps were found in December 2023. For the third time, she had surgery to remove lumps and there was chemotherapy.
Just as she thought she was recovering last year, she began to feel breathless as she did the main tasks. In March 2024, doctors discovered fluid in her lungs and diagnosed her with breast cancer Stage 4, which spread to the lungs, intestines and kidneys.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and about 55,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with the disease every year, according to breast cancer now.
When he is caught in the early stages, almost all women survive for five years after their diagnosis, but usually only a quarter of breast cancer -diagnosed stage 4 survive for five years, says Cancer Research UK.
Beverly spent five weeks in hospital after her diagnosis, the fluid was drained from her lungs and she began chemotherapy in April 2024 until he stopped working in January this year.
Although she knows that Energy is not a “cure”, she thinks this is the best option to give her “significantly more quality time on this earth.”
Beverly was diagnosed with breast cancer in Stage 4, which has spread to the lungs, intestines and kidneys (Beverly Angel)
Enhertu is the first licensed targeted treatment for patients with Her2-down breast cancer that cannot be surgically removed or has spread to other parts of the body.
Patients are usually offered chemotherapy, but now breast cancer explains that targeted medicine may offer people more time to live in comparison.
Enhertu was approved for use in Scotland in December 2023, but was rejected for use in NHS England in March 2024 by the National Institute of Health and Health Care (NICE) because it was too expensive.
Nice CEO Dr. Samantha Roberts said she was “extremely disappointed” that they were “unable to reach a price agreement that would make advanced drugs for breast cancer, available to about 1,000 women in England and Wales.”
Astrazeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, pharmaceutical companies that produce Enhertu have stated: “22 other European countries, including Scotland and most recently Spain and Romania, have already delivered patients to ENHERTU for HER2 West Metastatic Patients with patients to provide patients for patients to provide patients for patients with other countries. “To develop to provide fair access to patients with other countries with other countries.
However, moving to Scotland to access the drug is difficult. In February, Beverly and her husband, Nick, 67, planned to visit Edinburgh to look for apartments, but did not reach Stansted’s airport, instead they found themselves at the Hospital of Addensruruk in Cambridge.
The doctors there found that her cancer also spread to her peritoneum – a membrane that outlines the inside of the abdomen – causing fluid accumulation on the abdomen.
Describing the system as a “minefield”, she explained that she would have to move and enter the Council’s Tax Register in Scotland before he was even able to ask for the medicine.
Beverly, in the photo with her husband Nick, starts raising funds to help pay the drug or move to Scotland (Beverly Angel)
“If I move to Scotland, I will have to reduce all relationships with my current oncologist and have to become a Scottish resident,” she said.
“You have to go through a long movement process and they could turn and say that they do not finance me because I live in England.”
Since then, she has launched a Gofundme campaign, or to help financing the relocation to Scotland or pay for drugs privately in England.
Thanks to the generosity of a benefactor, Beverly has already had a circle of Enhertu privately, but she will have to take it every three weeks to have some effect.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Social Care said: “We know how disappointing it is for many families that Enhertu manufacturers do not want to sell this treatment, which is expanding to NHS at a fair and reasonable price, although NICE and NHS England offer unprecedented flexibility in negotiations.
“Enhertu is the first treatment of breast cancer that NICE has not been able to recommend for more than six years, a period in which it approves 21 other disease treatments. Our door remains open to support the introduction of medicines at a profitable price that can bring benefits to patients across the country.”