Falkirk's Mandie Stevenson appears on TV with Lorraine Kelly to talk about 'postcode lottery' of breast cancer drugs

Mandie Stevenson, 34, appeared on the Lorraine programme to talk about heart-breaking postcode lottery of access, following the approval last December of Enhertu for use on the NHS in Scotland.

However, the drug has not been licensed for use by NHS England.

Mandie has received the drug 17 times and has said it has had a profound impact on her.

She told presenter Lorraine Kelly: “The difference it has made to my life is incredible. Before receiving it I was bedridden with tumours on my liver and my spine.

"I wasn’t living, only existing. In reality, I was dying.”

Lorraine Kelly said that looking at her she could never believe that Mandie was living with the condition and hailed Enhertu as a “miracle drug”.

However appearing alongside Mandy was a mum-of-one from England, Hannah Gardner, who cannot be prescribed the drug, a decison the TV presenter said was “insane”. she added: “You’ve got your life back.”

Enhertu is the first licensed targeted treatment for HER2-low secondary breast cancer, and could offer people both more time to live and more time before their disease progresses, compared to chemotherapy.

Its use was provisionally rejected in England last September before being fully rejected earlier this month.

Mandie said: “We live four hours apart by train yet don’t have access to the same treatment. It’s a postcode lottery and wrong.

"I received this drug last Tuesday and look at me today. It’s a lot more gentle than receiving chemotherapy.”

Charity Breast Cancer Now has warned that lives will be cut short unless the decision is changed.

Mandie, who previously wrote a regular column, Perfectly Frank, for the Falkirk Herald detailing her cancer journey, and Hannah were later going to the House of Commons to meet with MPs, including Penny Mordaunt, whose own mother died from breast cancer, in the hope that something can be down to have the drug licensed in England.

There are also concerns that it may not get approval for use by patients in Wales or Northern Ireland.

At the time of the decision to reject its use, Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now said: “This is a dark day for people affected by incurable secondary breast cancer. NHS England, NICE, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca have failed people living with the disease. They’ve blocked a vital treatment that offers hope of more time to live for thousands of people with a certain type of secondary breast cancer.

“This means that thousands of mums, daughters, sisters, wives, colleagues, and friends who want to be there and create special memories, now face the unbearable reality of knowing a treatment that could have been a lifeline for them exists, but remains out of reach, while women in Scotland have been granted access.”