AN NHS trust that refused to stock a life-changing cancer drug because of the cost, under-spent on its annual budget by £379,000, the Northern Echo can reveal.

Health campaigners and cancer sufferers are calling for the trust to spend the money on the new cancer drug, Sutent, which can extend the lives of terminal kidney cancer patients by stopping the growth of tumours.

The drug is available at NHS hospitals across the UK, but patients in County Durham cannot get the treatment because health bosses said it is too expensive.

Madeleine Hodgson, whose husband John, 75, suffers from the kidney cancer, has been campaigning to make Sutent available on the NHS.

"This drug is the best thing to happen to people with cancer for the past 20 years, but we can't get it," said Mrs Hodgson, who lives in Ferryhill. "People in the South can get it, but the NHS trust up here is unwilling to stock it because of its cost.

"It is very expensive and normal people just can't afford it.

"We know there is no cure, but in a lot of cases this drug reduces the tumour. It can buy you more time, and that is so important."

The County Durham Primary Care Trust board meets tomorrow and a report will show that at the end of February, the trust was £379,000 under-budget.

Kathleen Devonport, a 63-year-old kidney cancer sufferer, who lives in Chilton, said the money should have been used to buy Sutent.

"If they have all that money, why can't they buy the medication that cancer patients need?" she said. "I thought the money wasn't there."

Dr Trisha Cresswell, the director of public health at the County Durham trust, said: "The drugs have not yet been approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), and the trust is advised by the North-East and Cumbria Cancer Drugs Advisory Group on issues of cost-effectiveness on drugs that have not gone through the Nice process. It is not helpful to present this merely as a cost issue.

"Questions about the trust's budget can be asked at the public meeting on Tuesday, but we cannot comment on board papers until after."

The trust will meet at Merrington House, Merrington Lane Industrial Estate, Spennymoor, at 10.30am.