Good news for eye patients

3:00pm Friday 29th August 2008

A TRANSLATOR from Hinton Waldrist said she was delighted by the decision to make a drug available to save the sight of thousands of eye sufferers.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) recommended the drug lucentis in a U-turn on draft guidance published last year.

The move will help those suffering wet age-related macular degeneration, which destroys the central retina and is the UK's leading cause of sight loss.

Hana Whitton, 57, faced going blind three years ago when health managers would not pay for lucentis.

She paid for treatment privately because she was already blind in her left eye and feared losing her sight completely if she wasn't treated quickly. Following two injections, her myopic degeneration of the retina improved and she hopes she will not need more treatment.

Mrs Whitton said: "I am delighted by this decision, which will help people like myself, and I sympathise with those who are trying to get sunitinib.

"I was in absolute turmoil at the time and I would not have been able to cope if it was not for the support of my husband Paul and the people at Abingdon Baptist church.

"When I got turned down, I was in a deep depression because I felt that nobody cared about me, but when people in the village found out, they were very supportive."

Mrs Whitton, originally from the Czech Republic, has lived in the UK for the past eight years.

She does translation work for European publishing houses and has been able to continue her work with the help of visual aids provided by Oxfordshire's visual handicap team.

Mrs Whitton paid about £7,000 for the treatment. She said: "If I had waited for my application to go through, I would probably be blind by now. I know money is important, but the human race should reach for higher targets. Other countries in Europe recognise that it is better for people to get the drug, so that they can look after themselves."

The cost of a single lucentis injection is £761.20. The two-year cost of treatment is about £10,700, assuming eight injections in the first year and six in the second.