A FORMER nurse battling a rare cancer says she feels let down by the NHS after she was denied funding for a potentially lifeextending operation in France.

Pat Deuchar, 55, from Darlington, has an advanced form of stomach cancer called linitis plastica. She said that doctors took so long to diagnose it that it has spread into her peritoneum.

Without the revolutionary treatment in France, which is unavailable in the UK, Mrs Deuchar may have only months to live.

Mrs Deuchar, who worked in the neonatal unit at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, discovered that a form of treatment for her rare condition is available in Lyon, in France.

In the summer last year, her cancer specialist at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, agreed to send her details to Professor Francois- Nole Gilly, from the Lyon-Sud Hospital, in France.

Prof Gilly, who has a worldwide reputation in his specialist field, recommended that Mrs Deuchar be referred as soon as possible.

But the major stumbling block was the cost – about £40,000.

The treatment is known as the Sugarbaker technique after the US cancer specialist who developed it in the Nineties. A combination of radical surgery and super-heated chemotherapy, the treatment is said to offer at least a 30 per cent chance of survival after five years.

In 2006, Prof Gilly told The Times that patients treated with this technique in 1990 were still alive.

In the summer, Mrs Deuchar’s consultant applied on her behalf for funding to NHS County Durham and NHS Darlington’s Exceptional Cases Committee.

On October 30, the NHS declined the request on the grounds that Mrs Deuchar had a common type of cancer, with limited evidence for the effectiveness of the treatment. Mrs Deuchar, who is married to Gary, 55, and has two children at university, Alex, 22, and Katie, 19, said: “I feel let down because it took so long to diagnose.

The situation I am in now is through no fault of my own and I do not have many options left.”

She said she was also angry at the length of time it took for a decision to be made on her treatment request.

Mrs Deuchar, who has also complained to South Tees NHS Foundation Trust about the length of time it took to diagnose her illness, said £40,000 was “loose change” measured against the “waste” in the NHS.

A spokeswoman for South Tees Hospitals said her claims were being investigated.