Pressure is mounting on Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust to make the kidney cancer drug Sunitinib available to patients immediately.

Campaigners have written to the PCT’s chief executive Andrea Young demanding that the life-extending drug — which it had previously refused almost all requests for — be made available today.

The action follows the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s (Nice) announcement yesterday that the drug should be routinely prescribed as a first-line treatment for kidney cancer by June.

But Clive Stone, 61, from Freeland, near Witney, wrote to Ms Young as chairman of the Oxfordshire campaign group Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients.

He wrote: “Nice has now recommended Sunitinib for first-line treatment of advanced renal cancer.

“I now formally request that you make the drug available to those who need it without further delay, before more brave people die unnecessarily.

“We all have a right to life.”

Yesterday a PCT spokesman said it would pay for and bring in Sunitinib as soon as possible following the publication of Nice’s final advice at the end of March.

Health campaigner Kate Spall, an expert in contesting patients’ appeals to get their drugs prescribed on the NHS, is also demanding the PCT acts immediately.

She said Oxfordshire PCT had treated patients horrendously.

She said: “Other PCTs are prepared to implement to guidance immediately.

“People should be knocking the doors down to get the drug. The PCT is morally obligated to start prescribing the drug. People have been waiting so long.”

Mr Stone added: “The PCT needs to cut through the red tape and start prescribing the drug now.”

Last August Nice was accused of condemning cancer sufferers to an early grave when it ruled Sunitinib was too expensive for prescription on the NHS.

Yesterday’s u-turn came after Pfizer – manufacturer of the drug – offered to make it cheaper.

Under the deal, the company will pay for a patient’s first six-week cycle on the drug, with the NHS paying for subsequent cycles.

Nice also took into account new rules requiring greater funding for expensive drugs that can help terminally-ill patients.

Kidney cancer sufferer Jim Wheeler, 57, from Kidlington, died last May, just days after being refused Sunitinib by Oxfordshire PCT because he was not considered an “exceptional case”.

Three other patients from Oxfordshire are also known to have died after being refused the drug.

Mr Wheeler’s widow Jenny, 55, rang the Oxford Mail last night after reading about Nice’s U-turn in yesterday’s paper.

She said: “When Jim was dying he asked me to promise that I would campaign to make sure other patients had the right to extend their lives by getting Sunitinib.

“I feel Nice’s decision is a huge step forward, but I will continue to campaign for the drug to be made routinely available before June, which will be too late for some people.”

tshepherd@oxfordmail.co.uk