The Velcade Three
Parliament praise for Velcade Three
Campaigning cancer patients the Velcade Three have been recognised in Westminster for the role they are playing in securing a life-extending drug.
Jackie Pickles and Marie Morton, both of Keighley, and Janice Wigglesworth, of Cowling, near Keighley, are commended in a Commons motion.
Keighley MP Ann Cryer yesterday tabled the motion weeks after the women, who all suffer from myeloma, were told that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) had made a preliminary recommendation to give Velcade approval - after previously saying, No.' It could be available to cancer sufferers within weeks.
Mrs Cryer's motion welcomes the NICE recommendation but urges that a full decision be taken.
The women were dubbed the Velcade Three for their high-profile battle for all sufferers to receive the drug. They all have multiple myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer. Velcade cannot cure the cancer but a course of treatment, costing around £33,000, can extend a patient's life.
Last year the three challenged then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt at the Labour party conference and demanded she step in and make the drug available.
Copyright © The Velcade Three, 2010.