NHS worker resorts to bake sales in bid to raise £120,000 for cancer treatment

A woman with a deadly cancer has been fundraising for life-extending treatment through bake sales.

NHS worker Jamie Scott needs to raise £120,000 for treatment for eye cancer which has spread to her liver even though the treatment has been approved for NHS use with “special requirements”.

The 49-year-old, who works in communications in an NHS mental health trust, has been told she cannot access the treatment – which sees high-dose chemotherapy delivered directly to her liver – on the health service.

So far she has raised £6,700 and says she “doesn’t know how” she is going to raise the total needed for the treatment, also known as percutaneous hepatic perfusion.

Ms Scott, from Telford, was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, also known as eye cancer, in 2011.

Despite surgery to remove her eye, the cancer has spread and has been found in her liver.

She has been told that chemosaturation therapy will give her more time with her husband, but will only be able to access it by raising the money herself.

She told the PA news agency: “I feel a bit desperate.

“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 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.”

She added: “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 on to a clinical trial she will be “waiting to die”.

“It’s horrible. I can’t think about the future,” she added.

Ocular Melanoma UK (OMUK) is calling for action from NHS leaders to help patients get the treatment.

The charity said the treatment 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 after the treatment.

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.

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.

Commenting on the case MP Scott Arthur said: “Behind every delay in approving these treatments are real people and families living with fear and uncertainty.

“Those affected by ocular melanoma do not have time to wait.

“We owe it to them to act urgently, ensuring the NHS provides equal and timely access to the most effective treatments available.”

NHS England has been approached for comment.

– Ms Scott’s fundraising page is at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jamie-scott-chemosat-treatment