12 Year Old Boy Denied NHS Cancer Therapy Given All Clear After Treatment In Turkey

29 August 2019, 14:34

Charlie Ilsley has been told he is clear of cancer after travelling to Turkey to receive treatment he was denied on the NHS.

A mother who took her son abroad for life-saving cancer treatment has expressed her anger that he was not offered it on the NHS.

Toni Ilsley stated that without the treatment her son would have died, and that she had to fundraise the money needed to pay for travel and treatment.

Charlie Ilsley has now been told that he is clear of spinal cancer after receiving targeted radiotherapy treatment.

He already had a brain tumour removed in 2015, but the cancer later returned on his spine.

Mrs Ilsley said that doctors in Oxford told the family nothing more could be done to stop Charlie's cancer spreading.

However, she researched targeted radiotherapy treatment abroad and decided to fundraise to take Charlie to Turkey.

Charlie has now been given the all clear by the same team that deemed him untreatable 18 months ago.

Mrs Ilsley stated, "If I had listened to them Charlie wouldn't be here now - it doesn't bear thinking about".

"When Charlie had his first scan in Turkey and the first treatment was working, I remember feeling really happy... and then angry that this couldn't be done in my own country."

NHS England said it could not comment on individual cases. However, it did say the treatment was "not always clinically appropriate" and its doctors' decisions were "difficult".

In a statement, it added: "Decisions about the right treatment are difficult, which is why they are made by clinical experts."

"The NHS does fund this treatment for lung cancer as well as research into other types of cancer, however it is not always clinically appropriate or a better treatment than others already available on the NHS."