At the age of 41, and despite never having being a drinker or a smoker, Lisa Brown was hit by the devastating news that she has emphysema.

Sadly, at a time when she most needed its support, she appears to have been very badly failed by the health service in Bradford.

A consultant at Bradford ruled that a vital operation to repair one of her lungs would be too high risk; however, a surgeon at Royal Brompton Hospital in London was happy to perform the procedure privately.

So she was forced to plunder her life savings for the £27,000 cost, even though the surgeon told her if she had been referred to him direct by her doctor, he would have carried out the operation on the NHS.

There are obviously complex clinical judgements and cost implications for any decision like this, and it is easy to be critical from the sidelines.

But for Miss Brown and her family it is simple; she has had to use her savings to pay for an operation which has made a huge difference to her condition and may have saved her life which would have been free if she had been referred directly to the surgeon.

There also appears to have been a failure to inform her she is entitled to a second opinion, which may have led to a different outcome.

It is difficult to argue with the demand of her MP Gerry Sutcliffe that Miss Brown should now be refunded the cost of this operation.

There is no doubt she has been badly let down by the health service at a time when she needed it most; that service should now do all it can to make amends.