Avastin is used to treat breast cancer

Debbie Hirst, 56, from Carbis Bay, wants to pay privately for the breast cancer drug Avastin.

But she has been told that if she starts taking it privately her free treatment on the NHS will end.

That is despite three cancer patients at the Royal Cornwall Hospital already paying for Avastin privately.

This is a really difficult situation and I fully understand why it is so distressing for Mrs Hirst and her family Dr Rob Pitcher

The Royal Cornwall NHS Trust said it had received Department of Health guidelines underlining official policy that allowing patients to contribute towards NHS care - known as co-payment - was against the principles and values of the NHS.

The government says it could lead to a two-tier system.

However, three patients at the Royal Cornwall Hospital started receiving treatment under the co-payment scheme before the trust received the guidelines.

Dr Rob Pitcher, medical director at the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, said Mrs Hirst's case came after the guidelines were issued.

Clear guidance

"This is a really difficult situation and I fully understand why it is so distressing for Mrs Hirst and her family," he said.

"We received fairly recently instructions from the Department of Health that the process called co-payment had to cease.

"We felt that because some patients had already started down that line and we had agreed to do that, that we had no option but to continue with those patients.

"But the guidance is entirely clear that we could not start any new patients using that same system."

Mother-of-two Mrs Hirst said in May she was told by the hospital that if she paid for Avastin she would continue to get NHS care.

The goalposts have moved Debbie Hirst

She said: "We put the house on the market and raised �10,000 with the help of family and friends.

"In December I went along to the oncology department and was told I would have to pay for all the treatment, meetings, scans, which cost �1,000 and blood tests privately.

"The goalposts have moved. I could have been one of those three and I feel like I have been cheated out of care."

On Tuesday Health Secretary Alan Milburn defended the NHS's refusal to pay for Avastin in a similar case involving a woman from North Yorkshire.