A MUM fighting terminal cancer says patients must now wait to see whether life-extending drugs will be made available on the NHS.

Barbara Moss said she made her case as strongly as she could to a panel of experts at a national review meeting organised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in Manchester.

Mrs Moss, aged 54, of Aconbury Close, off Newtown Road, Worcester, wants the cancer-busting drug Avastin to be made available on the NHS after she cashed in her pension to pay for her own care.

She believes it was Avastin which shrank a cancer in her bowel until it became operable.

Mrs Moss attributes living a longer life to the drug. She had been given just three to five months to live following her diagnosis in November 2006.

Mrs Moss, who has now lived three years since her diagnosis thanks to the ‘miracle’ drug, said she addressed about 30 members of the panel and oncologists and representatives from the charity Bowel Cancer UK.

She said: “I hope they will make the right decision so people can get the same chance of life that I had. I didn’t get a feeling at the meeting as to which way it would go but what other decision can there be when you’re talking about life? I felt very strongly about what I wanted to say.”

Mrs Moss made a case for a combination of chemotherapy and the drug Avastin for treating bowel cancer. She was paid £13,658 of her medical bill by Worcester-shire Primary Care Trust – now called NHS Worcestershire – following an appeal.

The figure represents the cost of the care she would have received free on the NHS had she not opted to pay privately for Avastin, which cost £9,000.

A decision on whether the drug will be approved by NICE is expected in about two months.

Mrs Moss’s cancer returned in May last year and although she is in remission she has been told her cancer will return again.

Her book, Who’s Been Peeping In My Bed, gives a detailed account of her experiences of fighting cancer.

All profits from its sale will split between St Richard’s Hospice in Wild-wood Drive, Worcester, and Bowel Cancer UK. It costs £7.99 and can be ordered from any bookshop.