Dear Madam, - Last week’s Impartial Reporter contained many inspiring and moving stories from cancer sufferers in our county who have each shown tremendous courage despite the great personal strain both they and their families have been under. Thank you to each one for sharing their story.

One thing I think it underlined for me is the serious matter we have in Northern Ireland of accessing life extending cancer medication, a really important issue and one that needs immediate attention from the Department of Health. Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom there is definite grounds to say that equitable access to cancer treatments is not available here in Northern Ireland where somewhere in the region of 10,000 people are diagnosed with a cancer illness each year. While I welcome and wish to highlight the fact that some £40 million is spent each year by the Department of Health in funding cancer drugs, there are still some 39 drugs that are not available here that are available in England and which have been found to have proven clinical benefits.

Over £200 million is available each year to the Cancer Drugs Fund in England to provide drugs that help extend life to sufferers and that have not been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.. So while a patient can receive such a life extending drug in say Bristol for example through this fund, a patient in Belfast cannot. This anomaly needs to change as a matter of the utmost urgency.

I will be urging our new Health Minister Jim Wells MLA to call a review of this matter and give it his most serious consideration. In the interest of fairness, equality and accessibility and primarily to enhance the sufferers quality of life, the matter demands immediate attention.

Yours faithfully, Councillor Raymond Farrell Ballinamallard Fermanagh