ACTOR David Suchet joined a York family at a demonstration outside Parliament yesterday, calling for a vital new medication to be made available on the NHS.

Eight-year-old Sam Dale and his mother and father Nicholas and Jo, of Copmanthorpe, were protesting against NHS England’s refusal to allow Everolimus to be prescribed.

The Press reported yesterday how Mr and Mrs Dale had had to pay £10,000 for their son, who suffers from Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) - a genetic disease which can lead to benign tumours throughout the body, including the brain - to receive a similar drug to halt the growth of tumours in his brain.

David Suchet, famous for playing Hercule Poirot in the TV drama, joined the demo because his wife’s grandson suffers from TSC. Mr Dale said the protest had been ‘brilliant’, with about ten families taking part.