A CANCER patient who is fighting for her life says she has been denied access to a promising new drug because the NHS will not pay for her treatment.

Eileen Quigley, 68, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, claims that she was told that the recently-licensed drug Herceptin was not available on the health service, and if she wanted the drug she would have to pay.

The drug manufacturers, Roche UK, claim that about 3,000 British women would benefit from the drug but very few patients outside of the South-East are getting it on the NHS.

While the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently considering whether the drug should be available on the NHS - and is expected to make a ruling in the summer - the Department of Health says in the interim it is up to health authorities to decide whether to fund licensed drugs.

An average course of Herceptin combined with chemo-therapy would cost about £13,000 and could prolong a patient's life by up to a year.

Ms Quigley, a mother-of-four who has advanced breast cancer, raised the issue of Herceptin after hearing about the drug from other patients.

The drug only works for about one in four cases of advanced breast cancer, where the illness is the result of a genetic defect, and has few side-effects.

It has become the standard treatment for this condition in the United States and is widely prescribed in Western Europe.

A spokesman for the drug company Roche said "very few" patients were receiving Herceptin on the NHS outside the South-East of England.

In desperation, Ms Quigley and her partner Barry Ogleby, 61, have approached specialists at Leeds to see if they can obtain the drug

"We can't wait for NICE. We are running out of time," said Mr Ogleby.

But a spokeswoman for St James's University Hospital in Leeds said: "We have used the drug in trials but we don't prescribe it for patients on the NHS. It is prescribed privately."

Even doctors at the famous Christie cancer hospital in Manchester are currently unable to prescribe the new drug on the NHS

Mr Ogleby contrasted the "fine words" of Health Secretary Alan Milburn, who last week pledged to make Britain's cancer care the envy of the world, with the reality of being denied access to new drugs.

At Newcastle General Hospital to launch a £87.5m investment programme in cancer care, the Darlington MP said the money would help place Britain at the forefront of treatment- but admitted it will take until 2008 for access to treatment for all types of cancer to compare with the best of Europe.

"Herceptin can prolong life but we have been told we can only have it if we pay for it," said Mr Ogleby. " We know patients in Newcastle and Leeds have had the drug through clinical trials but they won't provide it for us. It is a national disgrace, an utter shambles."

Ms Quigley said: "If it's available in other places, it should be available in the North-East. It's not just for me, it's for everybody."

The couple say they have no quarrel with doctors but they are angry at the system.

Dr Hans Van Der Voed, the couple's consultant oncologist at South Cleveland Hospital said there may have been a misunderstanding

"I have not come across a patient suitable for treatment with Herceptin, either because they don't meet the licence criteria or they are not well enough," he said.

Because the drug is new, any request for NHS funding would have to be approved by the local health authority concerned, he added.

An official with NICE, the independent body set up to assess whether new drugs should be funded by the NHS, confirmed it is assessing Herceptin and a decision is expected in June.

A spokeswoman for Newcastle and North Tyneside Health Authority said: "As far as we know, the drug has not become an issue. Our policy is to wait until drugs have been approved by NICE."

Professor Mark Baker, medical director of North Yorkshire Health Authority, said: "If the clinician makes an approach to us, we would have to make a decision. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the NHS paying for it."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "This is the reason why we set up NICE.

"The institute needs time to assess new drugs and during the period that NICE is checking out the treatment, we expect health authorities to continue to make their own decisions."