Please give others hope of precious more time...

A dying mum has been denied a drug that may have helped keep her alive long enough to see her daughter go to her school prom.

- BY LUCY THORNTON

Jess Duggan, 44, is speaking out in the hope Enhertu will be made available on the NHS to terminally ill breast cancer patients like her, giving them more precious more time with their loved ones.

She said in a message to ministers and drug companies: ‘This is an emergency for the families.

‘Please don't do this to the children’ While it is prescribed free in Scotland and 26 European countries, Enhertu is not yet on NHS lists elsewhere, preventing Jess and thousands of women in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from receiving it.

She said: ‘We are literally dying while waiting for this drug to become available’

Jess, from Lewes in East Sussex, was desperate to spend more time with her husband Simon, 46, and their children aged 12 and 15.

She said: ‘I am on a ‘Hail Mary’ chemo that I'm praying will work, but if it doesn't I am looking at a few weeks left. If Enhertu had been available for me to try six months ago, perhaps it could have worked and given me more time. I don't have the opportunity to find out if I could have been a mum for another year.

‘I could be planning a summer of birthday celebrations with my children instead of worrying they will be navigating their way through grief on their 13th and 16th birthdays’

Breast Cancer Now is demanding urgent action after new NHS drug spending limits changed in April, creating a fresh opportunity to approve the life-extending Enhertu.