Cancer Patient Travels 1100 Miles For Therapy Available At Home

Cancer patients are being forced to research and arrange for a pioneering form of treatment in England because it is not being routinely offered in Scotland, it was claimed last night.

The situation is highlighted by two Scots prostate cancer patients who said they had to travel hundreds of miles to Surrey after learning about brachytherapy independently of the NHS – one through a friend and another on the internet.

They said even specialist doctors were not informing sufferers of the therapy’s existence. The treatment involves implanting tiny radioactive seeds through needles into the prostate to destroy the cancer cells.

Patients are treated under general anaesthetic and can be home the following day and back at work the following day again, with less chance of the side effects common with prostate cancer treatment like impotence and incontinence.

Graham Robson, from Aberdeen, travelled a round trip of more than 1100 miles to Professor Stephen Langley’s centre in Surrey. “I was amazed that living in Scotland I had to find out about the treatment myself then travel to Guildford for it,” he said.

“No-one I saw in Aberdeen, GP or consultant, mentioned brachytherapy, but because of it I have my life back.”

Airline pilot Paddy Kelly, 53, was living in Troon when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005.

He said: “The treatment wasn’t mentioned as a possibility. I found out about it through the internet.”

Cancer specialists are now calling for patients to be given more choice over their treatment options.

The Scottish Executive said there was available treatment which was not at full capacity.