Cancer treatment gives mother hope
Updated on 17 December 2008
A woman who was given only months to live after contracting cancer two years ago said that she will be enjoying Christmas with her family thanks to pioneering treatment in Germany.
Debbie Brewer was diagnosed in November 2006 with mesothelioma, a lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
The 49-year-old was awarded a six-figure compensation payment by the Ministry of Defence after she said the illness was caused by hugging her father, Phillip Northmore, when he worked as an asbestos lagger at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth in the 1960s.
She was told by doctors that she had between six and nine months to live but refused chemotherapy and instead travelled to The University Clinic in Frankfurt.
A doctor had told her of an experimental treatment being carried out by Professor Thomas Vogl and Mrs Brewer used her compensation to pay for six sessions at the clinic.
Now specialists have told her the tumour has shrunk by more than half, is in remission and will not come back.
Mrs Brewer, who has three children - Siobhan, 22, Richard, 19, and Kieran, 11 - said it is a "miracle".
She said: "It feels like I have been given my life back. After I was first diagnosed, the chance to see the children grow up, to see grandchildren, I thought I had lost all of it. Not even a lottery winner could feel like this.
Now Mrs Brewer, from Plymouth, has started a campaign to have the treatment, which costs £3,500 a session, brought to the UK for trials.
She said: "I want to give people hope. I was told for mesothelioma there is little out there but the results in Germany are fantastic - it's about a 60% success rate.
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