“WE won’t give up until everyone who needs access to this drug has it,” vows Nadia Sawalha after taking her fight for a “life-extending” cancer drug to the heart of Westminster.
The Loose Women star, 59, has joined forces with her close friend Hannah Gardner, 37, who has incurable breast cancer, after learning a pioneering drug has been blocked for use on the NHS in England.
Trastuzumab deruxtecan, sold under the brand name Enhertu, could give Hannah another six months with her three-year-old daughter, Lilah Rae.
But the drug, deemed too expensive by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), has been rejected for use to treat HER2-low secondary breast cancer in England.
That’s despite being available in 45 other countries, including Scotland — with an upcoming decision in Wales and Northern Ireland likely to follow England’s lead.
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‘Utter frustration’
Hitting out at the postcode lottery, Nadia told Sun Health: “While Nice is still thinking, cancer cells are multiplying and women are dying.
“This health inequality in England is devastating.
“I’d say to Nice, ‘If this was your daughter, how would you feel when you say this isn’t worth the money for the extra time?’.”
Last month the public health body ruled that the medicine is too expensive for the benefit it offers — estimated to be around £10,000 per patient per month in the US.
Despite the NHS’s power to command lower prices, it failed to negotiate a deal that satisfied the Nice budget.
It’s a decision that has left Hannah, and thousands of women like her, feeling angry.
On March 18, Hannah held a private meeting with Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and Tory MP Craig Tracey, Chair Of The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer.
Mr Tracey told MPs of Hannah’s plight: “She brought the campaign to Parliament because it’s the only realistic treatment left available for her and time is not on her side.
"Can we have an urgent debate on getting all parties, including the drug parties, Nice and NHS England, back to the table and urgently approving Enhertu?”
Commons leader Mrs Mordaunt vowed to discuss the campaign with the Secretary of State.
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Enhertu is already given to some patients with secondary breast cancer — with a fine line separating those who will miss out.
HER2 is a protein that helps breast cancer cells grow quickly.
Around one in five women with breast cancer are HER2-positive and could get Enhertu on the NHS if their cancer spreads.
But those with HER2-low secondary breast cancer — around 1,000 women a year in England — have been denied the drug.
The charity Breast Cancer Now called the failure “devastating” and has since lodged an official appeal against Nice’s ruling.
AstraZeneca, the manufacturer of the drug with Daiichi Sankyo, has hit out at the decision’s “flawed methodology”.
Hannah, a former clinical trial manager from Twickenham, South West London, who is married to firefighter Peter, 37, has been told by her oncologist that the drug is now her best remaining option.
It’s been developed to treat a form of advanced breast cancer that affects about half of late-stage cases like Hannah’s.
Clinical trials have proven the drug can halt progression of Hannah’s cancer for an additional five months, on average, compared with chemotherapy, and give an additional six months of survival.
‘Utter frustration’
The Sun joined Hannah, Nadia, and pals Helen Addis, an ITV producer, and Caroline Shaw, who are both breast cancer survivors, on their trip to Westminster last month.
The group formed a close bond after meeting each other on a charity trek five years ago.
Hannah said: “The thought of leaving my daughter keeps me awake at night.
“It also keeps me going with this campaign because she is not being robbed of her mummy for a second longer than she needs to.
“It’s exhausting to have to fight like this but the utter frustration is driving me at the moment.
“People at my stage can live two to four years and I’ve been three so far. This could give me those important extra months.
“It feels so unfair to have to keep shouting out, ‘What is going on, here? Please help us!’”
Daughter Lilah Rae is autistic and Hannah wants to see her reach more milestones.
Hannah said: “I know she’ll be fine but I’d love to see her settled at school.
“We haven’t heard her say ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ yet and that six months could be the difference.
“She is the light of our lives. She doesn’t understand I’m sick but I’d prefer she has some understanding before I leave her.”
Hannah was given her primary breast cancer diagnosis in 2013, aged 26, after discovering a large lump in her left breast.
I wasn’t living — I was existing. Basically, I was dying. Nobody should be denied the chance of living
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After undergoing treatment, including chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, the cancer returned twice more — once in 2017 in her chest wall and again in 2020 in her underarm.
In June 2022, Hannah was given the news that she had stage 4 incurable breast cancer, specifically HER2-low breast cancer.
Enhertu is the first licensed targeted treatment for patients with HER2-low breast cancer that cannot be removed surgically or has spread to other parts of the body — also known as metastatic breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease in women in Britain, and one in seven will develop it at some stage in their life.
There are more than 56,000 new cases every year and around 12,000 deaths.
Around a third of patients are diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer.
Treatments such as Enhertu for secondary breast cancers aim to slow the growth of tumours, with many women living for years more.
But demand for such treatments is expected to rise as doctors help more women to survive their original breast cancer but need help again when it returns.
In December the Scottish Medicines Consortium approved Enhertu for use in Scotland.
Hannah also joined Mandie Stevenson, 34, who lives in Scotland and has received the drug 17 times, on ITV’s Lorraine last month.
Mandie said the drug has had a profound impact on her, adding: “I wasn’t living — I was existing. Basically, I was dying.
“Nobody should be denied the chance of living.”
Mandie was, in her own words, at death’s door last May. And a year later, there she is living, thriving
Nadia Sawalha
Nadia said: “Mandie was, in her own words, at death’s door last May.
“And a year later, there she is living, thriving.
“She’s a four-hour train journey away from Hannah, and around the same age.”
Breast Cancer Now has more than 166,00 signatures on its Enhertu Emergency petition.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: “Lives will be cut short unless Nice, NHS England, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca get back round the table and find a solution that puts these women first.”
Members of the charity last month met with Ms Mordaunt, who lost her mother to breast cancer aged 15 and has vowed to support their cause.
She told The Sun: “Anyone who has met Hannah can’t help but be moved by her situation.
“I would hope that Nice and others would be looking at what is happening elsewhere, and the benefits for this comparatively small number of patients.”
Tory MP Craig Tracey, Chair Of The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Breast Cancer said: “This issue has been on my radar for some time and I was very disappointed to hear the decision by Nice.
“We won’t stop fighting for this. Hannah’s story is a very emotive reminder of why the approval of Enhertu in England needs to be done without further delay.”
- Sign Breast Cancer Now’s #EnhertuEmergency petition now at breastcancernow.org.
