YET another family has fallen victim to inconsistent NHS funding policies after a father-of-four was denied access to a life- extending drug.

Builder Dave Hill, who has advanced lung cancer, has been told new drug Tarceva is not funded by English health authorities.

Now his devoted family, who live in the Whinfield area of Darlington, have no choice but to try to raise the money - almost £2,000 per month - so he can get the drug privately.

His wife, Tina, said: "We were shocked when we realised we had no choice but to pay for this drug that he needs.

"The doctor said if Dave lived in Scotland, he would get the drug straight away. If he doesn't get on this drug, there is nothing they can give him.

"This is his last option."

As part of their fundraising campaign, posters with pictures of Mr and Mrs Hill, with their six-year-old daughter, Chantelle, have begun appearing around the town, with the headline: "Please help me to save my daddy."

This is just the kind of inconsistent NHS funding highlighted by The Northern Echo last week, when we reported the plight of kidney cancer patient Barbara Selby, who cannot get the drug Sutent because she lives in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

NHS doctors in County Durham - seven miles from where she lives - have been given permission to prescribe the drug, which extends the lives of cancer sufferers.

The European Commission has been asked to investigate the lottery of cancer drug funding by Tory East Midland MEP Chris Heaton-Harris, who claims denial of cancer drugs to a patient depending on where they live breaks European anti-discrimination laws.

He is representing former headteacher Russ Jones, who is using his savings to fund Sutent.

Mr Heaton-Harris said: "There are rafts to anti-discrimination laws that come from Europe, and I can't believe that under European law you can discriminate against who can get life-enhancing treatment and who can't on the basis of where they live."

Mrs Hill told The Northern Echo that their cancer specialist is to ask Darlington Primary Care Trust to treat Mr Hill, who also has three step-children, as an exception and fund his treatment on Tarceva.

The restrictions placed on new cancer drugs, often widely available in Europe and America, were criticised by one of the UK's leading kidney cancer specialists, Professor Tim Eisen, of Cambridge University, on the front page of The Northern Echo last Friday.

He warned that, unless the Government was more willing to pay for new and often expensive drugs, the quality of health care in the UK was in danger of falling behind the rest of Western Europe.

The professor was particularly critical of the role of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, known as Nice.

Prof Eisen said the Nice drug appraisal process was slow and unfair, and placed too much emphasis on the cost of drugs.

Earlier this year, Nice decided not to approve Tarceva for general use in the NHS on the grounds of cost.

But the Scottish Medicines Consortium approved Tarceva

for use by NHS consultants north of the border.

The decision by Nice triggered an appeal from drug maker Roche, the British Thoracic Society, the Royal College of Physicians and the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

Paul Gaunlett, director of development with the Roy Castle charity, said: "This is postcode lottery in its extreme form. Somebody in Darlington is denied a drug that is available in Scotland.

Clearly that is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs."

Mr Gaunlett said it was bizarre that drug companies were encouraged to invest millions in developing new anticancer drugs only to be told they could not be used by the NHS.

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "We hope Nice will give patients access to Tarceva for non small cell lung cancer.

"This relatively nontoxic drug can be taken in pill form to help treat non small cell lung cancer.

"It prolongs life in patients with advanced disease and it has also been found to improve symptoms."

Dr Walker said Tarceva was used as a standard treatment in many European countries and in Scotland. We believe all patients who would benefit should have access to this drug."

A spokeswoman for Nice confirmed that an appeal against its decision on Tarceva was lodged on June 6.

She said that decisions about new drugs were largely based on the views of a range of experts and health economists.

Dr Tricia Cresswell, executive director of public health for County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trust, said the trust could chose to fund drugs not yet approved by Nice or which were not recommended by Nice.