Mid Wales cancer patient must travel for treatment

A cancer patient from Mid Wales is facing trips abroad for potentially lifesaving treatment due to a worldwide shortage of a vaccine.

Steve Houlker has been told by doctors at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital that no supplies of the vaccine BCG will be available until at least the end of 2013 following a fire at the Canadian factory that manufactures the drug which is a tuberculosis vaccine.

The 63-year-old, from Berriew near Welshpool, says the news could affect up to 2,000 people in Britain alone.

Next week he will travel to Belgium to start treatment there after being referred by a friend working for a cancer specialist in Brussels.

Although BCG is a vaccine for tuberculosis it is recognised for helping to stop bladder cancers growing back in the bladder or from spreading.

Mr Houlker, who runs the Upper Rectory restaurant in Berriew, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in January and had a tumour removed in February. But he still had symptoms and was due to start BCG treatment at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

"Unfortunately, because I was bleeding I was unable to have the treatment," he said. "Then I had a letter from the hospital informing me that BCG treatment was no longer available. I couldn't believe it. It is a matter of life and death."

Thanks to an incredible coincidence Mr Houlker was talking to a friend in Belgium, whose friend works for a Brussels cancer specialist and he now faces travelling to Belgium each week for 10 weeks.

He said: "I have grown-up children and grandchildren – and I also have a five-year-old son. I have an awful lot to live for.

Officials at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said they were aware of a global shortage of a BCG drug.