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Barbara Clark

If you knew of a drug that gave you a one in two chance of survival, wouldn’t you want to try it?’ asks breast cancer sufferer and mum-of-two Barbara Clark, 49, from Somerset. ‘I have no illusions that without it I would be dead within a year.’ The drug is Herceptin, aka the ‘magic bullet’. It seeks and destroys only diseased tissue, offering the best chance of surviving aggressive breast cancer, and could save 5,000 women a year.

Since her diagnosis in February 2005, Clark, a nurse, has campaigned tirelessly for Herceptin to be prescribed on the NHS. In October, she won a groundbreaking case against her local health authority. As a result, all women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer will be tested for suitability for the drug. Previously, it was only available to advanced breast cancer sufferers in certain areas of the country.

Clark wasn’t up to campaigning at first. ‘I was absolutely shell-shocked. I thought the lump was a cyst — I’d self-diagnosed, as nurses do. I held it together until I got to the car and then I cried for my children. I felt so heartbroken that I was going to be taken away from them. I felt helpless.’

At her next appointment, something clicked. ‘I thought if my life was going to be short, it was going to be full.’ Her lump was removed a month later. ‘Herceptin gives me the chance to be cancer free.’ But just because she’ll get the drug, Barbara hasn’t given up fighting. She has raised £25,000 so other sufferers can pay for private treatment.

Clark’s life has been transformed by the attention her campaign has received. ‘I’m just Mrs Nobody from Nowhere, but Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, called me. It made me feel my opinion is valued — the little person really can change things.’

To donate, log on to www.helpingbarbara.co.uk.

Thursday 26 January 2006


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