'They dramatically increased my life' says mum as government plans to cut cancer drugs

Linda Johnson says she is neither brave nor a fighter - although many would disagree.

The 57-year-old nurse from Billericay, Essex, has terminal breast cancer but even though her condition is now so advanced that government cuts to cancer drug funding are unlikely to affect her, she is still campaigning hard so that other patients can enjoy the same chance of a final few precious months of life. 

Linda who was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2007 which later spread to her skin, uterus and chest wall, was successfully treated with eribulin (Halavan) injections - one of one of 25 cancer treatments the government announced in January that it was planning to cut, but is now reconsidering.

 “I had eribulin for six months and it was amazing,” says Linda, a mother-of-three in an interview with her local paper, the Essex Echo.

“It dramatically increased my time. One person in three people is going to get cancer and that will increase to one in two in the future. The Government is being very short-sighted. Who is going to even make the drugs we need if they’ve got no one to sell them to?

“I’m very open about the fact that cancer is going to kill me - but I’m not ready to go yet. I have a very active life. At the moment I’m living with cancer, I’m not dying with it. This is what these drugs are doing for me.

It might only give me an extra few months but you try telling my husband or my children I’m not worth that.”

The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) was introduced in 2011, after a Conservative election manifesto pledge that treatments should not be denied on grounds of cost.

Its budget was increased from £200 million to £280 million, but the fund is forecast to have spent £380million by the end of the financial year because of demand. 

Earlier this year NHS England said it would increase the annual budget to £340million, but could not afford to continue paying for all of the cancer treatments which can extend life by up to two-and-a-half years, that are funded.

More than 3,000 patients a year with bowel cancer, and 1,700 patients with breast cancer are among those affected by the decision. This week, the fund will begin the process - first announced in January - of removing some of the drugs from the list it makes available.

They include three treatments for breast cancer - Afinitor, Halaven and Tyver - but also drugs for cancers of the bowel, prostate, ovaries, lung, pancreas and kidneys and for blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma.

Campaigners say thousands of patients are likely to face an earlier death because of the decision. More than 800 women each year are funded for Halaven, which extends the life of patients with an especially aggressive form of the disease by almost five months on average.

About half of women live longer than a year after receiving the drug, which costs around £10,000 for a six-month course of treatment and is prescribed as standard care in 55 countries.

Linda discovered a lump in her breast in November 2007. After intensive treatment, she was given the all-clear only to discover, two years later, that the disease had returned. A mastectomy and chemotherapy got rid of the cancer again, but it has come back every year since. She has now been told it will inevitably spread to her lungs, liver or brain and kill her.

Telling her husband, Martin, 51, and children Daniel, 34, and Amy, 31, was the hardest part. “I’m not a fighter and I’m not brave,” she says.

Now following a high-profile campaign to reverse the decision to drop Halavan, the Cancer Drugs Fund panel plan to review its evaluation decision on Monday [16th March]. On the same day, Linda is heading to Westminster, to meet her MP John Baron and hand over her e-petition that has so far attracted over 12,200 signatures, protesting against the cuts.

“I would like to think I could make a difference,” says Linda. “I’m doing this for other people, as I know it is too late for me. I get private healthcare because my husband has it through work, but I feel so strongly that just because you can pay for treatment, it doesn’t mean you should have to. It’s wrong.”

To sign Linda’s petition, visit epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/72199