WHEN someone is fighting cancer - fighting for their life - the last thing they need is to be fighting the law.

Our hearts go out to Ann Marie Rogers, the breast cancer patient who has lost her landmark legal challenge to be allowed the drug Herceptin on a National Health Service prescription.

A judge has ruled that NHS bosses in Swindon did not act unlawfully when they refused to give Mrs Rogers the drug, which has not yet been licensed.

A judge can make a ruling only on the basis of whether the established law has been breached. And, in pure legal terms, it is the right decision.

But in moral terms, it cannot be right that breast cancer patients in some parts of the country are given the chance of life that Herceptin gives them.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has stated that primary care trusts should not refuse patients the drug solely on the basis of cost.

But while geographical anomalies exist, the suspicion will always be that trusts which withhold the drug are doing so with their budgets in mind.

Mrs Rogers now has the option of appealing against the High Court's ruling and it must be acknowledged that she will be able to receive Herceptin until then.

But the underlying issue is the time it takes for new drugs to pass through the licensing system and be approved for NHS use, even when they are fast-tracked.

Cancer patients should be able to put all their energy into fighting for their lives - not fighting in the courts.