You have to fight on two fronts - the illness and the bureaucracy
 

As the Wales Against Cancer conference today debates the funding of cancer drugs, Health Editor Madeleine Brindley explores the issues surrounding one of the most contentious health issues of our time, and asks whether there is a solution



NOT being able to have a drug is as bad as the illness - the fact that you know there's something out there you can benefit from, but you can't access it because the money is not available, is as traumatic as being diagnosed."



Jayne Sullivan, a mother-of-two, from Cardiff, successfully fought for Herceptin to be available as a treatment for early breast cancer on the NHS in Wales last year after she was diagnosed with the disease.



She said, "You have to fight on two fronts - fight the illness and fight the bureaucracy."



Ms Sullivan's campaign, as well as encouraging the Welsh Assembly Government to fund the drug, thereby pre-empting official guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), threw the spotlight on the complex - and often seemingly unfair - way in which new and expensive cancer drugs are funded, or not.



Kaynak: SağlıkHaber