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FOR THE SAKE OF JUST £2.50

Jenny Hope

[Daily Mail-Tuesday, February 27-2007]

[Medical Correspondent]

Alzheimer's sufferers are denied drugs costing a pittance while the NHS squanders millions on junkies and image consultants. As a shock report reveals that caring for dementia patients costs Britain

£17,000,000,000 a year

-the Daily Mail launches a campaign to end this dreadful injustice

As the devastating human financial cost of dementia is revealed today, the Daily Mail launches a campaign to end the restrictions on drugs to treat Alzheinmer,s disease

Already 750,000 Britons are affected by dementia -more than half of them with Alzheimers - at an estimated cost to the nation of £17billion a year.

Within two decades the number of victims will have risen to a million with the bill soaring by many more billions. YET the NHS's rationing watchdog NICE has banned Alzheimers drugs which could hugely reduce that bill -even though they cost just £2.50 per patient a day

That is why we are inviting readers to join our

FOR THE SAKE of £2.50 CAMPAIGN

-backing the

Alzheimer's Society

-which is mounting a legal challenge to the NICE decision in the High Court.

It needs to raise many thousands to pay for the ACTION ,expected to start NEXT MONTH [March-2007] which it is hoped will prove the process leading to the restriction was unfair.

The drug companies Eisai and Pfizer are leading a separate legal action on the restrictions -and are NOT contributing to the Alzheimers Society 's CAMPAIGN.

Britons with dementia already HAVE LESS ACCESS to diagnostic services and treatment options than patients in other EU countries. But today a REPORT titled

Dementia UK commisioned by the Alzheimers Society,

-shows that the GOVERNMENT has NO PLANS for dealing with the explosion in SUFFERERS.

Instead the problem could grow worse as prescription drugs are withheld from patients from whom they might make a difference - until their symptoms deteriorate.

Three drugs, Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl, are no longer available for patients with 'mild' Alzheimers in ENGLAND and WALES

They compensate for low levels of a chemical within the brain which helps nerve cells to communicate, temporally improving or stabilising symptoms in about half the patients who try them.

How to lower your risk of Alzheimer's at:

www.dailymail.co.uk/alzheimers

Only patients with 'moderate' symptoms are eligible for these medicines, while a new drug called Ebixa which improves severe behavioural problems cab be used only as a part of a clinical trial.

Thousands of patients and careers, doctors and specialists in care of the elderly have protested over the decision by NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Neil Hunt, the Chief Executive of the Alzheimers Society, said the GOVERNMENT was sending out the wrong message to patients and their families. Spending a little money now on drugs which can slow the disease makes good economic sense in the medium and long term, he said

'The Dementia UK- Report clearly shows that to reduce the burden of dementia on individuals and society we need to try to delay the progression of the disease.

'This will not only save money but most importantly improve people's quality of life. That is why NICE decision to restrict the use of Alzheimers drugs on the NHS makes

NO SENSE

'NICE has got its sums wrong. It hasn't taken into account the TRUE COST of DEMENTIA CARE, to the NHS, SOCIAL SERVICES, FAMILIES and INDIVIDUALS.

'For too long the TRUE COST of DEMENTIA has been HIDDEN. Today we can say for sure:

This is what DEMENTIA COSTS, lets now put

PROPER PLANS IN PLACE.'

The Dementia Society UK -Report was prepared by the

LONDON SCHOOL of ECONOMICS and KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON

It says the cost of £17billion each year includes NHS and SOCIALS SERVICES, lost income and taxes from carers, and the estimated contribution from unpaid carers.

Delaying the onset of dementia by five years would half the number of related deaths, saving nearly 30,000 lives annually.

Mr Hunt said: 'The NICE decision ignores the benefits these treatments offer legions of unpaid carers and the millions of pounds they save the country every year. Drug treatments are just one part of the CARE and TREATMENT that a person with dementia needs but can be a

VERY VITAL PART

Actor Richard Briers starred as a husband caring for his wife with Alzheimer's in the 2005 BBC film

DAD

He said he was greatly affected by the research he did for the role.

Yesterday he said:

'Thank you to the Daily Mail for backing the CAMPAIGN to overturn this disastrous decision by NICE. £2.50 is such a small price to pay for treatment which can make a world of difference to the thousands with Alzheimer's and the millions more who care for a loved one with this devastating disease.'

* * *

Daily Mail -COMMENT

Alzheimer's is a truly dreadful illness. It afflicts 400,000 Britons and the number is sure to rise dramatically as the population ages.

Starting with little more than occasional memory lapses it can swiftly rob the sufferer of independence and dignity and leave them incapable of any sort of reasonable existence.

And who can imagine what it must be like to be a loving carer who not only needs to devote their life to looking after a parent, husband or wife, but has to watch their nearest and dearest reduced to a pitiable husk?

But it need not always be so. A group of drugs can slow the degenerative process, bringing huge relief to sufferers and careers.

THE COST A PALTRY -£2.50 PER DAY.

YET they are denied to many because the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) won't allow them to be prescribed in the early stages of the disease.

There is nothing rational about that decision. NICE first allowed the drug then it did not, and now it says it may only be given to patients in the middle statge.

It is the belief of the Alzheimers Society that this decision was taken simply to save money. That is WHY it is seeking a

JUDICIAL REVIEW.

The cost of providing the drug to all who would benefit would be about £180 million a year -a tiny proportion of the

HEALTH SERVICE'S BUDGET.

-in which £172 million a year is wasted on

MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS

and

£90 million on LUXURY CARS.

Of course, part of the problem is that Alzheimer's is not a fashionable illness, affecting as it does mainly the elderly. The NHS prefers, as we have reported yesterday to divert

£12 million to provide HEROIN to JUNKIES.

But consider this: the annual cost of dementia, according to a new report now tops £17billion. At just £2.50 per day, these drugs could help that figure down.

The Alzheimer's Society's legal challenge has implications for hundreds of thousands of patients and carers.

IT NEEDS OUR SUPPORT

NOT JUST IN SPIRIT

BUT

IN CASH

Every contribution, no matter how small, will make a difference. If 60,000 of the Mail's hugely generous readers each contributed

JUST

50p

-the Alzheimer's Society would raise the money it needs.

You can help them by filling in the coupon [Tuesday's -dated February 27-2007 or ringing the number

0870 085 1024

Make a cheque out to 'Daily Mail' and send to