A YORK cancer patient says he could die because the NHS refuses to fund immunotherapy treatment which he can prove tackles his illness.

Former soldier Paul Thomas-Peter says he spent his personal pension and Army pension lump sum, and sold treasured possessions, to pay £180,000 for the treatment privately at a German clinic two years ago, and says the resulting improvement in his health was “like a miracle”.

Paul, 61, of Scarcroft Road, said that before the treatment in 2017, he could “barely climb the stairs” and was “almost dead”.

But the keen sailor said he felt so much better afterwards that he could take part in dinghy sailing national championships, and scans also demonstrated how tumours all over his body had shrunk or been eradicated.

His oncologist subsequently made an Individual Funding Request (IFR) for the NHS to pay for a course of treatment in Leeds, but he said that had now been turned down three times.

Paul wrote an open letter to Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, earlier this year, imploring him to look into the IFR process which he believed was designed to fail patients.

“No clinician I have met has any faith in it,” he said. “Many clinicians just refuse to fill in the paperwork, as they understandably consider it a waste of their valuable time.

“I’m now deteriorating again which is such a shame, as I was almost clear in mid-2017. I want to stay alive. I have things to do.”

He said his plan was to stay alive until the treatment became standard or he forced NHS England to fund it, and so he had now launched a gofundme campaign to raise the £20,000 cost of the first course of treatment.

He had discovered an increasing number of people who were having to fund their own cancer treatment in this country as the NHS refused to.

“Personally, I think this is a scandal,” he said. “I’m really angry about this. Having terminal cancer is bad enough without having to spend years fighting NHS England for useful treatment.

“I’m a veteran, with the medals to prove it and I’ve paid my taxes for 44 years now, but when I need help I’m turned away.”

He stressed he was not criticising frontline NHS staff who treated him, who had been “absolutely fantastic”, but “bureaucrats” at NHS England.

The appeal, https://www.gofundme.com/keep-paul-alive, has so far raised £2,345.

An NHS England spokesperson said: “These decisions are made by an independent panel made up of clinical experts as well as a range of healthcare professionals and patient representatives.

“In this case, the drug companies involved have not got approval for these medicines for this type of treatment because evidence of effectiveness has not been provided to independent medicines regulators.”