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Hospital donation after dad dies
A TEENAGER who raised £19,000 so her dad could use a life-prolonging cancer drug is to donate the funds to Peterborough City Hospital after her father lost his battle with the illness.
Chloe Wilson (15) helped to organise a variety of events to raise the funds so that her dad David (51) could use the life lengthening drug Sirtex after he contracted bowel cancer which then spread to his liver.
Mr Wilson, of Mildmay Close, Oundle, was diagnosed with the disease in 2009 and doctors gave him just two years to live but the NHS East Midlands’ Interim Cancer Drugs Fund refused to fund the Sirtex treatment for him.
Sirtex is not on the trust’s initial list of cancer drugs that it will fund and the trust said it judges each case on clinical and cost effectiveness.
However, the drug, which is currently being trialled, is available for free to patients in other areas of the UK.
Chloe and her sister Jessica (18) decided to raise the £24,000 needed for the treatment and took part in a 14-mile sponsored run as well as organising a number of auctions and sales.
They managed to raise just over £19,000 and Mr Wilson was able to start using the drug, but sadly he passed away at Thorpe Hall Hospice in Peterborough on November 30, two weeks after being admitted.
Now, on January 23, Chloe will hand over about £18,000 to the oncology department at Peterborough City Hospital with the rest of the funds going towards health charity the Newton Trust which supported her dad during his ordeal.
Chloe, a pupil at Prince William School in Oundle, said: “Having raised all this money we thought we should donate it to the oncology department at the hospital as thanks for all the help and support they gave to my dad.
“My dad also wanted to make donations to health charity the Newton Trust so that his case could be highlighted by them and help support people who have similarly been denied treatments.
“I believe that had my dad been allowed the drug after he was diagnosed instead of having to wait for it then he could have lived for longer and would probably still be alive today.
“The NHS operates a post code lottery system and my dad could have got the drug had he lived in a different part of the country.
“I think this is really unfair and I’m considering starting a campaign to highlight this issue.”
Mr Wilson was able to start using the drug but his treatment stopped when his illness developed.
Chloe added: “My dad did eventually start the trial treatment but he had problems with thrombosis, which meant he had to stop.
“I feel that if he had been accepted for the trial earlier he would still be here.
“We all miss him terribly.”
Before he died Mr Wilson had considered selling his family home in order to fund the treatment.
Speaking in May last year he said: “I am basically a time bomb but I am also a fighter and I am so angry that because of where I live I am being denied treatment that could give me some more years with my two daughters.
“I don’t want to sell our home but I am running out of options as I am already living on borrowed time and these drugs would help.”
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
