Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer lifeLive your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletterLive your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletterAn NHS worker with a deadly cancer is trying to raise £120,000 for life-extending treatment.Jamie Scott has been told she cannot access chemosaturation therapy on the health service, even though it has been approved for NHS use with “special requirements”.The 49-year-old, who works in communications in an NHS mental health trust, was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, also known as eye cancer, in 2011. But despite surgery to remove her eye, the cancer has spread and has been found in her liver.So far, she has raised £6,700, but she “doesn’t know how” she is going to raise the total needed for the treatment, also known as percutaneous hepatic perfusion, a high-dose chemotherapy delivered directly to her liver.She has been told the therapy will give her more time with her husband, but she will only be able to access it by raising the money herself.open image in galleryJamie Scott works in communications in an NHS mental health trust (OMUK/PA)“I feel a bit desperate,” she said. “There will come a time when there will be too much tumour in my liver and the treatment won’t be viable, so by the time the NHS decide what they want to do, it might be too late.“I am trying to fundraise – I have a lovely colleague, she’s been really trying to help me, she has had bake sales for me, she made T-shirts with a QR code for my Just Giving page.“It just feels impossible to raise £120,000. I don’t know what I’m going to do.“I just feel really hopeless right now because my oncologist said this is a gold standard treatment but he can’t refer me for it.”She said if she does not get the treatment or onto a clinical trial, she will be “waiting to die”.“It’s horrible. I can’t think about the future,” she added.open image in galleryThe treatment costs £40,000 per cycle (PA)Ocular Melanoma UK (OMUK) is calling for action from NHS leaders to help patients get the treatment which has been shown to control tumours in almost nine in 10 patients whose ocular melanoma has spread to the liver, with some patients surviving for years afterwards. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says patients with ocular melanoma can receive the treatment under “special arrangements” while more evidence is gathered on the clinical effectiveness and value for money of the procedure.But it warns that current evidence shows that there are “serious, well-recognised” complications linked to the treatment.Unlike standard chemotherapy, chemosaturation isolates the liver from the rest of the body during treatment, allowing larger doses to be given with fewer side effects.OMUK said UK patients should be able to access the treatment, which costs £40,000 per cycle, with most patients needing at least three rounds, through the NHS.It said international patients can travel to the UK for treatment, but British patients are being excluded unless they can raise the funds.Symptoms of eye cancerNHSSymptoms of eye cancer can include:shadows, flashes of light, or wiggly lines in your vision blurred vision a dark patch in your eye that’s getting bigger partial or total loss of vision bulging of 1 eye a lump on your eyelid or in your eye that’s increasing in size eye irritation that is not going away pain in or around your eye, although this is rare Jo Gumbs, chief executive of OMUK, said: “NHS England’s failure to act is condemning patients with one of the least survivable cancers to fundraise for the only treatment proven to extend their lives.“The system is broken. We are calling on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to intervene now, before more lives are needlessly lost.”Retired liver surgeon Dr Neil Pearce, who worked for University Hospitals Southampton, said: “Chemosaturation is usually a well-tolerated procedure with comparatively short recovery times, giving patients the chance to return quickly to their lives and families.“It is deeply unfair that patients in the UK cannot access it routinely on the NHS. Patients travel from across the globe, yet UK patients are left to self-fund, which is simply not an option for most.“The disparity in access is indefensible and urgently needs to be addressed.”OMUK said around 600 people in the UK are diagnosed with ocular melanoma each year, and up to half go on to develop incurable secondary disease in the liver.NHS England has been approached for comment.You can find Ms Scott’s fundraising page here.
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NHS worker must raise £120,000 for cancer treatment or ‘wait to die’
