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Cancer dad's £25,000 agony
A CANCER patient is trying to raise £25,000 for treatment that could save his life.
Dad-of-four David Conroy has discovered a pioneering private treatment – but says it is so new the NHS will not pay for it.
The 55-year-old was given two years to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2007. Doctors have said it is terminal.
Mr Conroy is pinning his hopes on a robotic treatment called Cyberknife.
"They've said they can treat me," he said, "but I haven't got time to raise the money.
"If I leave it much longer they might not be able to help. Time is not on my side."
Mr Conroy was told he had cancer 15 months ago after going to the doctor suffering from jaundice.
Surgeons thought they could operate on the tumour but discovered it was too near a blood vessel to remove.
Then Mr Conroy, of Nelson Place, Sowerby Bridge, saw a story about the Cyberknife.
The radiotherapy machine moves with a patient's breathing so tumours can be targeted more accurately and damage to healthy tissue is reduced.
Several countries already use the machine, including America, France and Turkey.
This month a clinic offering Cyberknife opened in London and experts there told him they could help. Mr Conroy, a former needle loom operator at Fairbank Textiles in Sowerby Bridge, said his GP asked NHS Calderdale to fund the treatment but was told they had refused because it was too new.
Furious, he wants to make more people aware of the Cyberknife in case it can help them.
He said: "I've been reading about people who've had it and they've had some really good success."
Dr Graham Wardman, director of public health at NHS Calderdale, said: "For treatment not routinely funded by the NHS, a patient can have their case considered by the exceptional cases committee and reviewed through the appeals panel. "Any new treatment is considered through a process which looks at evidence of the effectiveness of the treatment and takes into account its status, for example, whether it is licensed."
Anyone who can help Mr Conroy raise the money for his treatment can email him at davidconroy25@yahoo.co.uk.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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