Cancer man may move to get funds

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7120775.stm

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A cancer patient who has been denied funding for a stem cell transplant plans to move to another city if it means he will get the treatment.

Peter Lord, 52, of West Hallam in Derbyshire, was told by Derbyshire Primary Care Trust that the treatment was "not cost effective".

His sister Sally Lord said she was considering moving him to Nottingham where funding might be granted.

Mr Lord has been told by his consultant that he needs the £70,000 transplant.

We will do the best we can to get him registered and set up at home with me Sally Lord, Peter's sister

"If that is what we need to do to get him the treatment he needs - that is what we will do," Ms Lord said.

Derbyshire PCT spokesman Richard Richards said the proposed treatment was "relatively experimental" and not cost effective.

He said the trust was responsible for 700,000 people and in this case it did not believe that "the outcome will justify the expenditure".

Sally Lord said all her brother's medical records would have to be transferred to Nottingham.

"We will do the best we can to get him registered and set up at home with me."

She said her brother's consultant and Nottingham City PCT said they would fully support the transplant.

"Peter has worked all his life - he has paid his national insurance and tax. But to get that money back is a post code lottery."

A bone marrow match has been found for Mr Lord - and his consultant recommended a transplant take place.

His mother Jean Lord said: "We thought it would be a problem finding a match - but then this (funding problem) came out of the blue."

Mr Lord, who is in Nottingham City Hospital where he has had chemotherapy treatment, worked as a design engineer in Derby before being forced to stop work.

Nottingham City PCT told the BBC that individual clinicians are allowed to decide whether patients are suitable for treatment.