Campaigning cancer patient Jacky Pickles today declared: "I have nothing to lose but my life" as she stepped up her fight for the Government to approve a new drug.

Mrs Pickles, 44, a midwifery sister at Bradford Royal Infirmary, and fellow multiple myeloma patients Janice Wrigglesworth, 59, of Cowling, and Marie Morton, 57, of Keighley, are taking their battle to gain access to the drug Velcade on the NHS to the top by writing to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

The trio, who have been dubbed The Velcade Three', have also sought the advice of the country's top human rights solicitor, Stephen Grosz, who represented breast cancer patient Barbara Clark when she won a landmark appeal allowing her to be prescribed the drug Herceptin. Even though the drug Velcade is routinely prescribed in many other countries across the world, including Scotland and Northern Ireland, patients in England are still being denied its benefits.

It is being appraised for use in the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) and a final decision had been expected this week, but that has been postponed until mid-October.

Nice provisionally said the drug would not be available on the NHS, a decision which was met with shock by doctors, professional bodies and patients.

It prompted Mrs Pickles, Mrs Wrigglesworth and Mrs Morton to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the postcode lottery that existed in who got access the Velcade. Mrs Pickles, of Laycock, Keighley, who was diagnosed in 2002, has already benefited from the drug after taking part in a clinical trial.

She said of the delayed decision: "We are confused and disappointed but maybe Nice did not realise what a big myeloma community there is and have been inundated by patients and their families.

"I still feel they will give us a positive decision."

In the meantime, Mrs Pickles said the trio were "upping the ante" in their campaign to gain access to the drug. They are in the process of setting up a website and have opened a bank account to raise funds in anticipation of a legal battle.

"We are not three silly women playing games," she said. "We are hoping against all hope for a positive decision but we will be prepared if it does not go our way.

"I have nothing to lose but my life."

e-mail: claire.lomax@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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