A mother-of-three with incurable breast cancer has to raise £1,000 every month to pay for a life-extending medication not available on the NHS.
Lesley Kennedy, from Belfast, said she ‘is not ready’ to say goodbye to her children just yet – even though there is nothing more doctors can do for her.
Mrs Kennedy has instead chosen to try palbociclib, a drug hailed as the ‘closest thing to a cure’ for women with incurable breast cancer.
But because the 35-year-old has previously undergone hormone treatments for her cancer, she isn’t eligible for NHS funding to get the drug.
However the price tag of £980 every 28 days has not discouraged Mrs Kennedy, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer two years ago, from fundraising.
Lesley Kennedy, from Belfast, ‘is not ready’ to say goodbye to her children just yet – even though there is nothing more doctors can do for her (pictured with her husband Lee)
Mrs Kennedy told Belfast Live: ‘I was told the original price of the treatment would be £3,100 every 28 days and it seems impossible.’
‘Then it reduced to £2,500 and now I have signed a contract for the drugs which are costing £980 every 28 days.
‘It’s still hugely expensive but with all the help I am getting, it has so far been doable.
‘I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my children a year ago and I’m still not ready. So I will keep taking the drugs, taking the help and doing my best.’
The drug palbociclib was rejected by Nice last February on the grounds that it was too expensive and offered only limited benefits.
But it announced in September it can approve it after negotiating ‘discounts’ with Pfizer. Ribociclib, another breast cancer drug, was approved at the same time.

Mrs Kennedy has instead chosen to try palbociclib, a drug hailed as the ‘closest thing to a cure’ for women with incurable breast cancer (pictured with husband Lee)

But because the 35-year-old has previously undergone hormone treatments for her cancer, she isn’t eligible for NHS funding to get the drug (pictured with husband Lee)
Taken as daily pills, they stop cancer cells dividing and spreading by blocking the action of two key proteins.
They have been available to women in the US for nearly two years. Some British women have been paying up to £156,000 a year to buy them from America.
Until that decision by the rationing body, there had been no effective treatments for women battling incurable breast cancer.
They are usually offered chemotherapy to temporarily slow its spread but this has crippling side effects, and many feel it is not worth it.
Trials have shown they extend the lives of patients with incurable breast cancer that has spread to other organs by an average of ten months.
But some women are still alive three years after receiving the drugs, working full time and travelling the world.
Mrs Kennedy, married to Lee, is hopeful palbociclib will have the same effect for her, as the disease has spread to her liver, lungs and bones.
She was diagnosed in 2015 with stage two breast cancer – but was told it had spread a year later – even after undergoing a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Doctors devastatingly told Mrs Kennedy 13 months ago there was no more medical care they could offer her, Belfast Live reports.

Mrs Kennedy was diagnosed in 2015 with stage two breast cancer – but was told it had spread a year later – even after undergoing a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy (pictured with Lee and their children Ben, 14, Jake, 11 and Corey, eight)

Mrs Kennedy has been on palbociclib for two weeks now – and has said she is ‘feeling so well’
She told the newspaper: ‘If I’d given up then and agreed that nothing else could help me, then we might be in a very different place.
‘But we pushed on and I got treatment privately and the last year has been exceptional. Every day with my boys and my husband, every moment has been special.
‘If I had listened to what I was being told in some areas I might not have had that time or those experiences – and they have been precious for all of us.’
Mrs Kennedy, mother to Ben, 14, Jake, 11 and Corey, eight, has been on palbociclib for two weeks now – and has said she is ‘feeling so well’.
Up to 45,000 patients are diagnosed with breast cancer in England each year and one in eight women will develop it at some point in their lifetime.
If you would like to donate to Mrs Kennedy’s fund go to her friend Jennifer Howell’s GoFundMe page.
Ms Howell met Mrs Kennedy in a caravan park last year and they became friends. She is now helping to raise funds to keep her on palbociclib.