A judgement not to recommend a medicine for cancer on the NHS is to be reconsidered, it was revealed yesterday.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence disclosed that bone marrow cancer medication Velcade is not "cost-effective" at £18,000 a year per person.

Its own appeal board called for a review after aid organisations said the treatment, which is prescribed in Scotland and Europe is successful and branded the verdict “perverse.”

Cancer sufferer and activist Jacky Pickle also added in the Mirror newspaper: "Without it we're sentenced to death."

Bone marrow cancer, also known as myeloma takes the life of 3,000 patients per annum in England.