A COUPLE who were planning to move to England to access a vital cancer drug are “over the moon” their appeal to the Welsh NHS has succeeded.

David Southwood appeared on the front page of the Argus last month after he and his wife Angela had to pay £3,711 a month to fund the kidney cancer drug Axtinib.

Their life savings were depleting rapidly, but now the couple are celebrating after Aneurin Bevan Health Board had a change of heart and will give them the drug for free.

Angela Southwood said: “It was amazing news. I couldn’t believe it at first and I had to ring our doctor to confirm it was genuine. It will make a massive difference to us.

“We are both over the moon. There’s no pressure now as to how we are going to fund the drugs next month or what are we going to do about moving GP and moving oncologist. When somebody is so ill you don’t want to be worrying about these things.”

The couple had already started the process of registering with a GP 50 miles away in Burnham-on-Sea, who was already aware of their story as it had been covered by their local newspaper.

Mrs Southwood said charity the Pamela Northcott Fund had helped her draft letters of appeal and she believed they were instrumental in getting U-turn from the health board.

She added: “I just hope it makes a difference for other people in the same position as us.”

Although the drug is unlikely to cure Mr Southwood, he has already seen a “dramatic” improvement after taking the drug for a month, Mrs Southwood said: “His appetite is back, he’s no longer short of breath, he’s no longer injecting insulin so it must be doing a lot of good.”

A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan Health Board said: “It would be inappropriate to comment on any individual case. Each individual request is considered for funding based on the clinically exceptional circumstances of the individual case and assessment of the clinical impact for the individual. Following the Individual Patient Funding Request (IPFR) panel, patients and their clinicians are notified of the decision made in writing, in line with the All Wales IPFR policy.”