YOUR front page headline and article, "The cost of living" (Echo, July 5), about the two kidney cancer patients who cannot get the drugs they need on the NHS, was very moving. It is so unfair. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

I believe that a national fund should be established to pay for these drugs and to ensure that anyone who needs them to preserve their lives should be given them.

We contribute to the National Lottery, which pays for community projects, and to the annual Children in Need Appeal, which helps children, and aid for overseas countries. So why are we so cheeseparing when it comes to people's health?

People who have life-limiting conditions should not have this added pressure. It is cruel and it is wrong.

Alan Macnab, Darlington.