Private drug aids cancer man left to die

Sarah-Kate Templeton, Health Editor A cancer patient sent home to die by the National Health Service has seen his health improve after he cashed in his pension and used funds raised by friends to pay privately for an expensive drug. Andrew Crabb, 49, a father of three from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was told by doctors in October that there was no treatment available on the NHS for his advanced kidney cancer. His wife Diane, 57, was told that he had months to live. The couple refused to accept the death sentence and have raised enough money to pay for the drug Sutent, at a cost of about £3,000 a month. Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has agreed to allow Crabb, a former bricklayer who has nine grandchildren, to pay for the medicine privately while continuing to receive NHS care. The hospital is one of at least six trusts in... [read full story]