A GRANDAD who has received life-prolonging treatment for his kidney cancer is calling for the drug to be made widely available on the NHS.

Kevin Boyes, 43, has been receiving the drug Nivolumab as part of a drug trial in a bid to shrink the cancer in his kidney so it can be operated on.

The drug, which Mr Boyes said has filled him ‘full of beans again’, has been recommended not to be made available on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Health bosses made the recommendation in July because the drug, which is said to be too expensive.

Mr Boyes, a former manager at Tesco, said that the drug has given him his energy back and he cannot understand why money comes before life.

He said: “It’s made me feel so much better after being on drugs that made me very ill and hospitalised me on occasions.

“I feel more healthy and I feel like I’ve got my energy back, I’m full of beans really. I can now look after my grandson and play with him which I couldn’t have done before.

“I’m not saying it’s a miracle drug, but it has made me feel like I don’t really have cancer and from scans we can already see it is having an effect.

“What I don’t understand is why the NHS cannot make something available that could be life-changing for patients with this condition.

“It’s made a big difference to my life and and life is worth much more than money, it’s really quite sad they aren’t seeing that.”

Mr Boyes’ partner Rhona Jeffrey is also suffering from breast cancer and is receiving chemotherapy.

A final decision on whether the drug can become available on the NHS will be made in October.

In the North West, the number of kidney cancerdiagnoses increased by 97 per cent between 2002 and 2012.

Many of the 12,000 people that suffer from kidney cancer each year in the UK face a poor prognosis with only five per cent with the most advanced stage of the disease surviving five years.

Mr Boyes, who lives in Burnley has been told his condition is terminal, but if the cancer can be operated on, this may change.

He was diagnosed in 2013 after complaining of persistent stomach ache, initially mistaken for food poisoning.

Mr Boyes, who has legal guardianship of his partner’s grandson, began receiving Nivolumab on a free trial in May after taking cocktails of other drugs which left him suffering severe side effects.

He said how the drugs made him feel tired, lethargic and very sick all the time.

Since taking Nivolumab, he has suffered little or no side effects and has seen shrinkage of secondary cancer tumours in his lungs.