A WELL-KNOWN councillor with incurable cancer is calling for a life-extending drug to be offered on the NHS.

Brimscombe mum Liz Peters, who was diagnosed with terminal secondary breast cancer in October, is hoping to be prescribed the revolutionary treatment called Kadcyla which extends the lives of patients by an average of nine months.

But the drug, which costs £90,000 per year for each patient, has been rejected for use on the NHS because of its cost.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which decides which drugs and treatments are available on the NHS, said the drug made by Roche Pharmaceuticals was too expensive.

Liz, who is due to start her third round of treatment next week, said: "Both previous treatments have given me dire side effects and I have l landed up in hospital.

"I'm hoping Kadcyla will be prescribed.

"I would ask readers to sign the petition so that all women, especially young mothers, are given a chance of a longer life."

She is urging people to sign a petition launched by the charity Breast Cancer Now which is calling for NICE to reconsider the decision.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: "This disastrous decision is a huge setback for the treatment of advanced breast cancer.

"Kadcyla offers significant and precious extra time for women with incurable cancer in great need of hope, and we mustn’t let it slip away.

“NICE and Roche’s inability to find a compromise is seeing secondary breast cancer patients left abandoned.

"Responsibility lies on both sides, and such reckless brinkmanship is unfortunately about to rip away one of the best breast cancer drugs in years from patients in desperate need of a lifeline."

Professor Carole Longson MBE, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE, said: “We know that people with cancer place great importance on drugs that can increase their life expectancy.

"For that reason we apply as much flexibility as we can when we look at new life-extending treatments.

"But the reality is that the price of trastuzumab emtansine (also called Kadcyla) is currently too high in relation to the benefits it gives for it to be recommended for routine commissioning in the NHS, even taking into account the end of life criteria and the patient access scheme.

“This is not our final recommendation for trastuzumab emtansine. The draft guidance has been published for consultation so I would urge consultees, including the company, healthcare professionals and members of the public, to submit their comments on the preliminary recommendation so that the committee can consider them at its meeting in February.”

To find out more and sign the petition by Breast Cancer Now visit bit.ly/2hwUVQv