Herceptin gift for sick mother

Katie wanted to help raise £47,000 to fund the drug for her mother

A woman with breast cancer is to get the Herceptin drug after her young daughter highlighted her plight.

Katie Morgan, 10, wrote to Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, saying her mother, Susan, had been refused the drug.

The letter was made public and now an anonymous businessman has offered to pay the £47,000 cost of treatment.

Mrs Morgan, of Whitchurch, was refused the drug by Shropshire Primary Care Trust but would have been prescribed it had she lived two miles away in Wales.

Her husband, Robert, 35, told the BBC News website: "We are overwhelmed that there are such people out there that would consider doing things like this."

We have a common taxation system, why don't we have a common drug delivery system? Owen Paterson, M

In a statement, Shropshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) said it had hoped that the drug would have been cleared for use by the time a patient had had surgery, chemotherapy and then radiotherapy for their breast cancer following diagnosis after October 2005.

But because of safety concerns and the absence of a product license for the drug's use in early breast cancer, the PCTs in Shropshire will wait for a published decision from the National Institute of Clinical Effectiveness (NICE).

It is not thought the drug will be licensed for use in early breast cancer before summer 2006.

But allowances will be made for patients "who believe that they may have individual circumstances that make them exceptions to this decision" and who put it in writing.

Late-stage breast cancer

North Shropshire MP Mr Paterson said he had been inspired to make Katie's letter public.

The Conservative MP said it highlighted the discrepancy between different primary care trusts in funding Herceptin treatment - an issue he had raised in the House of Commons in the autumn.

"We have a common taxation system, why don't we have a common drug delivery system?"

Herceptin is currently only licensed for use in women with late-stage breast cancer but studies suggest it could be beneficial for those in the early stages too.

We are dealing with people's lives here Robert Morgan

Mrs Morgan, a mother-of-four, was diagnosed with breast cancer last May and has since gone into remission.

Mr Morgan said his wife and five other women with early-stage breast cancer in Shropshire had now formed a support group, called Herceptin for Shropshire Now, to try to raise more money for treatment.

"It is just a postcode lottery at the moment," he said.

"There are loads of other parts of the country that are getting the drug - we are dealing with people's lives here."