A Darlington grandma has reissued calls by a campaign to bring a drug to breast cancer patients in England which she believes could potentially extend her life.
A chance finding of a Check and Change campaign pamphlet in a clothes package described as an "omen" led 50-year-old Heather Sawyer to inspect herself in 2020.
She found a lump - prompting her to visit the doctors where she was diagnosed with stage 3 invasive lobular breast cancer.
The grandmother of 11, who lives in Darlington with her husband and parents, has since undergone a mastectomy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy before her diagnosis was upgraded to stage 4 in 2022 - the most severe.
Her cancer is now classed as terminal and incurable.
Part of her journey has involved fundraising nearly £10,000 for a collection of cancer charities, but she has most recently joined with a national campaign to bring the drug Enhertu for women with a subtype of incurable breast cancer called HER2-low.
Currently, the drug is available in Scotland but not in England due to a failure to reach an agreement with suppliers.
Heather believes that if she had a chance to have this drug - it could be transformational.
She said: "To be able to get this drug would just be amazing - it is what I need. At the moment, I'm on a treatment plan which ends at Christmas.
"For after that, my oncologist says that drug is what I need. It's so imperative - more so for people who come after me.
"It is so wrong that it is a postcode lottery. You can be two hours up the road and be able to get it and then here, you can't.
"Every day people are dying, and their life could be prolonged if this drug was available."
She added: "My mission has now been to create awareness and early detection - I had a fundraising party for my 50th birthday where we managed to raise £9,500."
Other campaigning by Heather has seen her appear on ITV's Lorraine discussing her journey as well as being a part of the Check Choir - which was lucky enough to perform at the Royal Albert Hall last week.
In an effort to advance the campaign, Heather was also part of a collective of women and Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha who travelled down to London last week (July 10) in a bid to be heard by the new Labour Government over the use of Enhertu.
She was one of 31 people with painted chests, all of whom have been touched by breast cancer who gathered outside Westminster to plead their case.
In May, the All-Party Parliamentary Group On Breast Cancer (APPGBC) held a roundtable event focusing on Enhertu - but campaigners say they have been “ignored” since then.
Also, an online petition urging the NHS to permit use of the drug is now close to 300,000.
Heather said: "In May, a group took a massive petition and they were promised that it would be brought up and they would be contacted but that didn't happen.
"Then, everything happened with the election and it got swept under the rug. We picked 31 women as a specific number because that is how many people die every day from breast cancer."
The NHS was contacted regarding the use of Enhertu and have said the drug is not being used due to its price and say they are "disappointed" patients cannot access this "latest advance" in care.
An NHS spokesperson said: “NHS England expected drug companies AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo to offer this treatment at a price that would enable NICE to recommend its use for patients with secondary breast cancer.
“We are deeply disappointed that AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo have not been willing to price this treatment to enable approval, therefore denying NHS patients the opportunity to access this latest advance in care.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "It is the mission of this government to build an NHS fit for the future.
"An important part of this means patients having access to the newest and most innovative medicines that both work and are cost effective for our healthcare system.
“We are currently waiting for NICE to publish its final guidance on Enhertu for a form of advanced breast cancer. NICE and NHS England stand ready to consider any new improved commercial offer from the suppliers.”
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