Family fight for cancer treatment in USA because drugs not available in UK

Heather Bellamy (48) needs cancer treatment in the USA because the drugs she needs are not available in the UK. Credit: ITV News Anglia

A mother of four from Downham Market in west Norfolk says she won't live to 50 unless she can get cancer treatment in America.

Heather Bellamy, who is 48, has been told she has run out of treatment options in the UK but she hopes to raise enough for a pioneering new drug that's not available here.

For the last four years has been living with a terminal illness, acute myeloid leukaemia.

  • Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Kate Prout

After Heather's body rejected two stem cell transplants, doctors say there is nothing more they can do for her.

She says a drug that's currently on trial in the US - Enasidenib - could give her a few more years.

The company that produces the drug, Aigos Pharmaceuticals, registered for it to be licensed in the EU last summer but has decided not to push forward with it in the UK.

It means NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, has no option but to suspend plans to license it in Britain.

Heather says a drug on trial in the US could give her a few more years of life.

Heather Bellamy is a former nurse and says she had excellent treatment at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn.

She needs £250,000 to get the treatment in America but time is running out to make it a reality.

The family is fund-raising so she can get the treatment.

Heather's family are hoping to raising £250,000 to send for for treatment in America. Credit: ITV News Anglia