SEVERAL months had passed since my diagnosis with incurable kidney cancer and I was now ready to fight for access to Sunitinib, the global gold standard treatment for my disease.

I had become sickened at the harrowing tales reported in the media where fellow patients had been denied the drug by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust and left to die prematurely.

Our only hope was Nice, which was appraising Sunitinib along with three other kidney cancer drugs, would approve it.

We had to fight on two fronts: locally and nationally.

Time was of the essence as cancer waits for no one, and people were still dying. We had to do something, if not for ourselves, then for future generations, for Britain has one of the worst cancer survival rates in Europe, on a par with Poland.

I could never fully understand the logic behind investing vast sums of money into cancer research and then denying needy patients access to new drugs.

It was time to launch a national campaign for Sunitinib. Together with my wife, Jan, and a few others, I set up the campaign group Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients.

We pride ourselves on being completely self-funded and so remain truly independent – no one can accuse us of being in the pay of the pharmaceutical companies. Daily running costs are met from our pensions and that’s the way I want it to stay.

The morning of August 7 last year would be one that I would never forget. We just couldn’t believe the news. Nice had made an interim decision not to recommend any of the four kidney cancer drugs.

It was completely unexpected and many of us were in total shock. Our one last hope had been taken away.

We felt we had been totally abandoned by the NHS. After all, many of us had donated blood for many years and had paid a lifetime of taxes.

It just felt so unfair to be cast aside by faceless bureaucrats, especially as Sunitinib was freely available in many other countries. It was a modern drug and the NHS was still prescribing Interferon, a highly toxic 25-year-old drug with a low response rate. We deserved better!

I was so angry I wanted to tell people about the way that we had been treated just because we were unlucky enough to have a rare cancer type. After all, there are not many of us, and the treatment costs would be a drop in the ocean of the NHS’s overall budget.

I managed to get through to Jeremy Vine’s radio show and vent my anger and explain our plight.

A producer phoned me later to say their switchboard had been jammed with calls expressing support for us. It was very reassuring. It meant a lot to all of us.

I was then asked to contribute to the morning show on BBC Radio Oxford and again we were told we had touched a nerve with listeners. The Oxford Mail kindly agreed to run its own campaign to fight for us.

We believed Nice had got it wrong and it was time for patients to make a stand. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain ...