Nivolumab is an immunotherapy drug NHS approved for treatment of types of lung, kidney and skin cancers, but not for bowel cancer. This drug has an immense effect of reducing or completely eliminating aggressive tumours in some people. The NHS will fund this drug for some cancers but not other rare cancers.

Nivolumab has been shown to work extremely well for colorectal (bowel) cancer where the cancer is of a rare type (MSI-high or mismatch repair deficient) but there are so few people each year with this rare type of bowel cancer, the necessary approval has not been sought.

My wife was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in February 2018 and given just a year to live, in September 2018 she was sent home to die after the metastatic cancer caused infection and necrotic tissue in her abdomen. She was sent home with strong antibiotics to try to keep her alive as long as possible. After a few months things had stabilised and although she had huge tumours, she was still with us. In February 2019 her oncologist approached the drug manufacturer to ask for Nivolumab on a compassionate treatment as her cancer was MSI-high... and they agreed. A few months later her cancer tumours had shrunk dramatically. We are a year into the 2 years that the manufacturer is giving the treatment for free and she has returned to almost pre-cancer life with no side effects.

We just need the NHS to agree to fund the drug for this type of rare bowel cancer as it clearly works for some.

Please sign this petition so we can raise awareness of this small group of people who could hugely benefit from a drug already funded for other people.