by Angela Cole

A drug a Maidstone woman fought to have approved for bowel cancer patients like herself has been given the green light five months after her death.
Sheila Norrington, 59, from Barming, died in January after successfully battling to receive the drug Cetuximab on the NHS, which she believed would prolong her life.
Mrs Norrington and her husband Goff successfully appealed to the then West Kent PCT after they were refused funding for the drug because it had not been licensed for patients in her condition by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.
Mr Norrington was a member of the NICE panel which agreed to approve the drug for patients in the early stages of treatment on Monday.

He said: “All of this came too late for Sheila. She was one of the first to say that if it came too late for her it would still be a legacy that something is done and things will move forward, so I do feel this is a small legacy to her, and that she didn’t go through it all for nothing.”
But he added: “I’m delighted because, even though this wouldn’t have helped Sheila, it is the first step in the right direction.”