A CANCER campaigner battling two tumours himself has spoken in support of a father-of-three denied life-extending drugs on the NHS.

Clive Stone said prostate cancer sufferer Paul Coleman, founder of Oxford Karate Academy, should fight on for the drugs.

Mr Stone was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007 and won a battle to get state funding for the life-extending drug Sunitinib.

He later persuaded Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron to set up the Cancer Drugs Fund for treatments that are not routinely funded by the NHS.

The Eynsham resident, 66, has battled 34 brain tumours in three years and was this month told that two more have developed.

Mr Coleman’s cancer has spread to his bones and he said he cannot get NHS funding for Enzalutamide or Radium 223 as the disease is too advanced.

Enzalutamide is only available through the Cancer Drugs Fund and Radium 223 through a drugs trial.

Mr Coleman is now raising £60,000 for Radium 223 treatment in the US.

Mr Stone said: “I’m very sorry to hear about Mr Coleman’s situation but I’m also glad he is taking positive action.

“I would urge him to seek another opinion, if he has not already, and continue to state his case as deserving treatment.

“He needs to keep himself high profile and we all have to put more pressure on the Government.

“It’s the only way to get things changed.”

Mr Stone, who offered to meet Mr Coleman, will this year campaign for those “forced to live with cancer while drugs are available”. He was speaking after a brain scan at Headington’s Churchill Hospital found two tumours had grown.

Mr Stone said: “They don’t appear to be new tumours and if they are existing ones that have been treated and have now grown, that is worrying.

“But I have lived with cancer for six years and I’m not going to just give up now.

“There are a lot of people depending on me and a lot to do this year to continue to shame the Government into helping more people with cancer.

“So I just have to keep going.”

Mr Coleman welcomed the support, adding: “Thankfully there are many people out there who are supporting me, like my family and my students around the world.”

He is currently on a detox programme at California’s PhMiracle Center in a bid to slow the spread of the disease.

He added: “We recently had a 24-hour karate event in Oxford and together with other fundraising the fund to send me to America for Radium 223 is already over £16,000.

“In the meantime I have decided to adopt the position that I am living with cancer, not dying from it.”