I was shocked to read about Jim Wheeler who was denied the life extending kidney cancer drug Sunitinib, because he was not classed as an ‘exceptional’ case (Oxford Mail, May 13).

Surely anyone diagnosed with cancer should be classed as an ‘exceptional’ case, thus meriting the best treatment and life changing drugs?

Cancer patients meeting an ‘exceptional’ criteria get preference over so-called ‘average’ patients.

This is shockingly flawed – there are no ‘average’ patients, all patients suffering from cancer should have access to life-extending drugs. Why the cancer drug lottery?

Is an overstretched and underfunded National Health Service to blame?

There was a time when the NHS would move mountains to ensure the best treatment for patients.

Yes, doctors and nurses undoubtedly do unsung work with little reward, but the service now seems to be run like a business with a budget to adhere to.

It is a sad consequence of commercial interests and an economic climate gone haywire – resulting in a seriously stretched health service, trying to cope with a rising population and operating under the increasing shadow of red tape and bureaucracy.

Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies make billions from medicinal products each year, but still charge a high premium for their drugs.

The availability of life-extending drugs to cancer patients should be limitless, not limited to some backward criteria and petty rules.

If a patient’s life is extended by cancer drug administration – and his or her loved ones share precious quality time together – then the drugs should be made widely available without condition.

The upshot is higher taxes may be inevitable to ensure cancer drug availability, but patients like Mr Wheeler, who sadly died in 2008 from kidney cancer after being told he was not an ‘exceptional’ case, were badly let down by the system.

Mr Wheeler, and more like him, worked hard all their lives asking for little. But when they needed it most, the care they so desperately required at that crucial time was not given.

The loss of a loved one is devastating enough without the added stress of a care system apparently not functioning at its utmost best.

I hope the limited availability of cancer drugs is resolved with the correct government action (I’m sure new PM David Cameron will be looking at this most pressing matter).

Additionally, it’s the drug companies’ duty to play their part with generous and essential concessions to the NHS.

David Tinson

Moorland Road

Witney