Former soldier Mark, from Gainsborough, Lincs, was given just a year to live in 2011 and spent his final months battling to obtain the drug Avastin – which can slow the growth of a tumour, or even shrink it.
Shockingly it’s funded by NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, but not by NHS East Midlands where they lived, meaning patients just 15 miles from Mark’s home were automatically entitled to the treatment, while Mark wasn’t.
21-YEAR-OLD MUM 'TOO YOUNG FOR SMEAR TEST' DIAGNOSED WITH CERVICAL CANCER
He died in June 2012 aged just 38.
Karen – who was left to raise their children, Sophie, 10, and Tom, nine – says: “How can it be so easy for some people to get life-saving drugs when others are told they can’t have it? It’s completely unfair.
"Mark died three years ago but I still feel so angry, the postcode lottery robbed us of Mark too early.”
Mark's case is one of many that reveal the effect of the NHS postcode lottery.
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