Milford Haven Low Dose Naltrexone campaigner meets with Prime Minister, Gordon Brown (From Western Telegraph)

Milford Haven Low Dose Naltrexone campaigner meets with Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

2:25pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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A surprise meting with the Prime Minister has left a Milford Haven healthcare campaigner hopeful that her goal of comprehensive clinical trials of the drug Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is a step closer.

Jayne Crocker started the campaign group LDNNow with her partner Andrew Barnett.

The couple both take LDN on private prescription, Jayne for ulcerative colitis and Andrew for secondary progressive MS. The low-cost, generic drug is currently out of patent and is only prescribed by around 200 doctors in the UK, it has been used in the treatment of a number of autoimmune conditions as well as cancers, HIV and Aids.

Jayne believes that the drug will never be trialled by drug companies as it would not make enough profits. She says the only way for LDN to be comprehensively trialled, is with UK Government funding. These trials would, she believes, give more doctors the confidence to prescribe LDN and save the NHS millions.

Andrew and Jayne's surprise meeting with the PM took place in Llanelli earlier this month. The campaigners had been told that they were meeting Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain "It was a bit of a shock," said Jayne.

"When we arrived at our meeting place, the security was something else, as was the number of photographers, and in walked Gordon Brown."

Jayne said the Prime Minister was very well aware of LDN and the LDNNow campaign and listened with great interest to the challenges LDN users face.

"He said he will he himself look into this and get back to us personally," added Jayne.

The LDNNow campaigners are pushing forward with their mission to get comprehensive clinical trials for LDN.

Last December, supported by ITV's doctor Chris Steele, LDNNow handed a 13,026 signature petition to 10 Downing Street.

They are now putting the pressure on the National Institute for for Health Research (NIHR) to fund LDN trials and petitioning the European Parliament to fund trials as a human rights issue.

"We as patients also need to be able to have a say," said Jayne.

"We are the people with these diseases and taking the drugs. The fact we are often not being told about or offered LDN, which we know is a safe and effective drug, is not acceptable.

"We as patients should have a right to influence what research is done by bodies like NIHR. After all, who has the right to deny us a drug that does no harm and slows down the progression, if not halts, diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, MS, crohns and cancer?"

To find out more and to sign the European Parliament petition go to http://www.ldnnow.co.uk.