Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha and her best friend Hannah Gardener worked tirelessly to get a pioneering cancer drug approved for use on NHS England but were recently dealt a huge blow when they learned jolting new information behind it being rejected.
The presenter, 59, has been campaigning with Hannah, who is living with secondary incurable breast cancer, to raise awareness of the importance of the drug Enhertu. 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. It could give people both more time to live and more time before their disease progresses.
In March, the duo and thousands of others were left heartbroken when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected the use of the drug in NHS England. At the time, NICE said the cost the NHS was being asked to pay for Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) was "too high" compared to its benefits.
In December 2023, the drug was approved for use on the NHS in Scotland following a decision from the Scottish Medicines Consortium. It has been accepted in over 45 countries, leaving women in England and Wales on the back burner. Despite the disappointing news, which left Nadia previously feeling "upset, angry and scared", she and Hannah didn't give up and continued their fight for women's health.
Nadia and Hannah have been tirelessly campaigning for the drug to be approved (Hannah Gardner)
Hannah is living with secondary incurable breast cancer (Hannah Gardner)Nadia joined Hannah and a group of around 10 women living with secondary breast cancer at Westminster earlier this month to give speeches advocating for women who would have been eligible to access the drug. It was during the two-hour meeting that the women were astounded to learn that AstraZeneca actually offered a much lower price for Enhertu to NHS England than what Scotland paid.
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Speaking to Mirror Online, Nadia recalled how "intimidating" it was to walk into a room of "very important people making all the decisions". The women gave powerful speeches discussing living with cancer and spoke from the heart as they made sure to question the MPs "over and over" about the rejection of the use of the drug.
"I was talking to my friends that were there with me that have also had breast cancer and we said, you know, for some people, it's too late. You're fighting for the next generation," she explained to us. Summarising the "unbelievable" meeting, she added: "They basically sat there, in their own way, and said it's all about money."
They learned that NICE changed the severity of secondary breast cancer from 'severe' to 'moderate' on their scale, which meant that the "big pot of money that was there for severe diseases was not available" for the drug that could change thousands of people's lives.
The duo and a group of women recently went to the House of Commons to fight the approval of Enhertu (Belle PR)
Nadia and Hannah (pictured with her child) were shocked to learn NHS England was offered a much lower price than what Scotland paid for it (Belle PR)An hour and 40 minutes into the tense and emotional meeting, AstraZeneca dropped the bombshell news that England was offered a cheaper price for the drug than Scotland, which was rejected. They said: "Well, actually, we will say that NHS England was offered a price considerably lower than what NHS Scotland paid." Nadia said of the huge blow: "It felt like, in my opinion, that AstraZeneca was sitting there going, 'Oh, sod this!'"
The news left the room simmering in shocked silence as a moment bubbled between everyone in attendance as Nadia "felt like there was some sort of agreement that 'you just don't talk about money'." The presenter went on to share her astonishment at the news, saying: "It is an outrage... It is an absolute disgrace the way women are treated."
Her friend Hannah's cancer spread outside of her liver and it has affected her stomach lining. She also has a tumour near her kidney. All while focusing on her health and hospital visits, Hannah tirelessly campaigned with endless interviews, meetings and discussions in hopes of changing the future for other women.
Nadia questioned why women's health is always put in the back burner (ITV)Hannah barely had any sleep ahead of the meeting at the House of Commons but still worked on her speech and interviews. "It's a very powerful moving thing to be around gladiators. Why should women have to fight so f***ing hard for everything?" Nadia questioned.
In the moments after leaving parliament, the women felt "disorientated" by the news of what could have been a huge transformation for women's health. Nadia said: "We were all really in shock. We all went to stuff our faces with Chinese food. We felt a bit disheartened."
Although the women felt disheartened after the meeting, news emerged last week that NICE issued a 'short exceptional pause to the publication of their final guidance on Enhertu' - which felt "like a win" to them as it could mean there is a possibility of a change to the rejection in the future.
"We're seeing that as a win. We're seeing that as meaning, 'Okay, there's still a chance that this could still be made available'," Nadia added of the drug, which received a standing ovation when its results were unveiled at a clinical trials conference in 2022. "I mean, a few months ago it wasn't. Simple as that."
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Nadia and Hannah are also behind Breast Cancer Now's petition, which currently has almost 260,000 signatures, calling on NICE, NHS England and the drug companies Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, to do everything possible to find a solution that makes Enhertu available on the NHS.
The Macmillan Support Line offers confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.
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