A CANCER campaigner who secured a national fund for costly treatments says people will die under plans to restrict access to it.

Clive Stone hit out after NHS England announced it would re-evaluate about half the drugs funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) and assess costs.

The fund was set up in 2010 after lobbying by Mr Stone – who has battled 34 brain tumours – to fund expensive drugs not provided by the NHS.

Mr Stone, of Eynsham, said: “People are going to die, there is no doubt about it.

“Some of these senior managers are on £300,000 to £400,000. Why can’t they give up some money?

“Why don’t people keep their promises? If we could only tax the super rich we could have a fully funded health service and care for the elderly.”

Prime Minister David Cameron made the CDF promise from Mr Stone’s home in 2010.

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The former bank manager had lobbied him following his successful fight to be treated with kidney cancer drug Sunitinib in 2007.

This included a 2008 delegation of 100 sufferers to Nice headquarters, and Mr Stone said this week that he was prepared to go back.

He said: “I am thinking of leading another march to London. It is early days yet; if we can stay strong enough we will do it.”

The grandfather-of-one said: “We were assured by the Prime Minister that he brought the cancer drugs fund in so that doctors or oncologists can give what patients need. There shouldn’t really be a budget on healthcare. We know there are so many super-rich people not paying their taxes. It is topsy-turvy, it is crazy.”

The fund has £280m and has provided cash for 55,000 patients.

Now NHS England is to re-evaluate 43 drugs on the list and, for the first time, assess a drug’s costs along with its clinical benefits, potentially introducing price restrictions. Patients currently receiving drugs on the list will continue to get them if the drug is removed from approved treatments.

Fund chairman and oncologist Professor Peter Clark said: “The fund has delivered major benefits to many patients, but if this is to continue we have to act now.

“We have got to make sure that the CDF delivers drugs which offer good clinical benefit at reasonable prices so the CDF can treat the largest number of patients.

“We want to create a fund that will ensure patients don’t miss out on promising innovative treatments we know are in the pipeline.

“This re-evaluation process is an important step towards achieving that and is absolutely the right thing to do for patients.”

Mr Stone, 67, said while his present drug, Sutent, was not on the list he was concerned a drug he could take if this stopped working, Axitinib, was on the list.

He said: “We now have many patients phoning in tears as they have been committed to an early death, including me.

“Why can’t we rely on these people to keep their word to taxpayers? I will be explaining my feelings to the PM on behalf of hundreds of families who will be left with no hope now despite his promises that doctors should be free to prescribe the most clinically effective drugs to cancer patients.”

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