WHEN Barbara Moss makes the case for cancer drugs being available on the NHS she only has to tell people about the beautiful life doctors told her she would never have.

Mrs Moss, of Aconbury Close, Worcester, was diagnosed with bowel cancer and given just months to live – but that was five years ago this month.

The softly spoken but secretly steely mother-of-two, now aged 56, had been planning her own funeral and writing goodbye letters to her family but now she is more likely to plan holidays or spend quality time with her husband and children, moments so precious to her that it is hard to put a price on them.

But sadly life does have a price and for Mrs Moss and her family it was £21,000 for a drug called Avastin, which NHS Worcestershire had refused to fund on the basis of advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

Mrs Moss had to cash in her pension and her elderly mother had to use her savings to pay for the drug, which shrank her cancer until it became operable.

Mrs Moss believes this is the only reason she is still alive today and she has since made it her mission to make sure others do not get a raw deal, even if it means locking horns with powerful organisations such as Nice.

The former teacher has even turned author with a book about her experiences, Who’s Been Peeping in my Bed? which has so far raised £1,000 for St Richard’s Hospice and Bowel Cancer UK.

Her story first came to light in the Worcester News but has since attracted nationwide and even worldwide attention, including a recent interview with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News and a documentary on French TV.

Mrs Moss knows she would never have seen her youngest son Aidan being awarded his PGCE at the graduation ceremony in Worcester Cathedral or get offered his first teaching post as a science teacher in a local school or her other son Jevan enjoying his work on the IT helpdesk with the fire and rescue service.

She would not have been able to see her mum celebrate her 90th birthday or spend 11 weeks in France with husband Mark.

She said: “I never dreamed of being given the life to witness all of this and it’s what family life is all about.

“I look back to November 2006 when I was first told that there was ‘no hope’, I realise just how lucky I am to be here now.

"I must first attribute my survival to the brilliance of my doctors, but I also realise how their hands have been tied as to what they were able to do, firstly, because of Nice’s regulations on the cost-effectiveness of the drugs that I was recommended by my oncologist and, secondly, because of where I lived, what is commonly termed as the postcode lottery.

“I won’t ever forget how my family and friends gathered round and the importance to me of all the love that was shown.

"Mark, my husband, spent every moment that he could at my side; his whole life revolved around looking after me, taking me to all my appointments, blood transfusions, radiotherapy, scans and the numerous times I was actually in hospital, including Christmas Day.

“Jevan and Aidan came over to see me regularly. It must have been so difficult for them to continue with their work and study over the two years of my continual treatment that followed and all my ups and downs.”

Her mother was 86 and came down from West Yorkshire every time Mrs Moss had a course of chemotherapy.

She said: “I had four complete courses, losing my hair each time.

"She was at my side for every treatment. Most of these lasted a full day in the oncology unit at Worcestershire Royal Hospital or Cheltenham Hospital.

“My brothers and sister were also frequent visitors and, of course, so many other close friends. I could feel the warmth of all this love and I’m sure the strength that this gave me helped me to go on.”

But Mrs Moss knows she faces an uncertain future. She said: “I have been told that my cancer will return, the question is when.

"It has already returned once, in my lymph, and I have overcome it.

“I know that I cannot ask for more than I have been given. However, there is a new vaccination being tested right now for prostate and bowel cancer.

“This, it is hoped, will kill the cancer rather than leave it dormant, waiting to emerge again.

"If I live long enough for this to be available, there has to be hope.

"The fear is if we cannot have speedy access to drugs presently available, do we have any prospect of seeing the next generation of them?

“I have witnessed so much unnecessary suffering from people that I have met.

"My own experience in trying to access the drugs that gave me my best chance made me feel that I was living in a country where the NHS was fantastic, my doctors were doing all that they could, but that the Government was allowing a situation totally immoral by means of divided rules.

“I can categorically say it was because of the drug Avastin that I am alive today as it reduced the tumour in my liver sufficiently for it to be removed. However, when I asked the PCT for this drug, they refused to fund it.”

Mrs Moss is also grateful for the support of the charity Bowel Cancer UK, which helped her by providing information, encouragement and direct help, helping her win her appeal for NHS Worcestershire to reimburse her for some of her medical costs.

She is now trying to fight what she sees as the continued postcode lottery over cancer drugs, which has continued despite a review by Professor Mike Richards.

The review produced a series of recommendations in November 2008, accepted by the Government, which sought to address inequalities.

Mrs Moss said: “I am dismayed that today, three years later, we still have a postcode lottery. The Cancer Drugs Fund allows direct applications for drugs, mainly for cancer, not readily available on the NHS.

“The ideal is that they can be applied for directly by the oncologist and it is funded £200 million per year by central Government.

“However, many of the strategic health authorities have made it so difficult that cancer sufferers have to go through the same process as I did in 2007 before their application goes forward as their health authority has not approved of the use of the drug in their region.

“Why? Do they not realise that time is precious for these people? I treasure the life that I have been given. Every day has been a gift.

"Certain moments I could never have had are very, very special.

“Don’t expect me to accept the statement that futile drugs give false hopes to cancer sufferers and only prolongs their misery.”