A GRANDFATHER who is suffering from inoperable cancer says the NHS is denying him a drug that could keep him alive.

Ron Illingworth, 59, of Holdenhurst Avenue, Bournemouth, says he was told at Poole Hospital that he needs the bowel cancer wonderdrug Avastin, which works by cutting off the blood supply to tumours.

But the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has decided that the drug is not cost-effective - despite being the standard treatment in many other European countries.

NICE is the independent organisation which provides national guidance on which new treatments should be made available to NHS patients.

Mr Illingworth was diagnosed with bowel cancer in October 2005 and underwent surgery and six months of chemotherapy.

Unfortunately his next scan showed the cancer had spread to his liver and after another operation and a further scan, doctors told him the tumours were inoperable.

"It was devastating," said Mr Illingworth.

"When it had moved from my liver to the lymph nodes behind my stomach in November, I asked the hospital if there was anything else that would help. To my amazement they said yes, there's this stuff called Avastin'."

Mr Illingworth's oncologist, Dr Tamas Hickish, explained that the treatment cost £32,000 a year and patients could not have it on the NHS. If Mr Illingworth went private, he would also have to pay to have the drug administered - a further £30,000 a year.

Mr Illingworth began to try and raise the money himself. A friend has now offered to bankroll the treatment, but Mr Illingworth believes it should be available on the NHS.

"It is licensed in many European countries and in America so it's not that it doesn't work - it's because of the cost," he said.

He appealed to the primary care trust and his MP, Tobias Ellwood, has contacted the Department of Health. "They basically said NICE hadn't approved it because it was too expensive," said Mr Illingworth.

Hilary Whittaker, chief executive of the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, said: "We are now the only nation in the EU not to offer Avastin and Erbitux (another bowel cancer drug) to patients in the disease's advanced state.

"It is terrible for those battling with the disease that the value placed on their lives seems so minimal, with effective and licensed treatments put out of reach for the majority of patients."

Peter Littlejohns, clinical and public health director of NICE, said the drug didn't represent good use of NHS resources.

Debbie Fleming, chief executive of Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust, said: "We haven't been made aware of this particular patient.

"What we shouldn't be doing is funding drugs for one person that aren't available to others. We wouldn't expect our clinicians to prescribe a drug not approved by NICE."