Frank Buckle realised that Sutent was special one day when he was shaving. His cancer had been diagnosed in May 2004 and Mr Buckle, 71, owner and director of a manufacturing company in Southport, had had a kidney removed - but not before the cancer had spread.

“It had formed a lump the size of a golf ball on my right elbow,” he said yesterday. “I had taken just three Sutent tablets when I was shaving one morning and thought the lump had shrunk. I rang the research nurse to tell her. Within weeks it had shrunk to the size of a Smartie, and it’s still that size. Scans show a lot of my other tumours are shrinking, too. Some have disappeared.”

Not only is Sutent more effective, it is far less unpleasant to take and has fewer side-effects than the triple drug therapy he had been on.

“That was absolutely horrendous” he said. “Now the side-effects are minimal. I get mild fatigue at the end of the day, but not so as you’d notice.”

Mr Buckle, who still works part-time, said: “We have to fight to get these drugs to patients. Some just sit there in awe of the doctors when they’re told they can’t have treatments other countries take for granted. What they don’t realise is that the doctor is saying, ‘Sod off and die’.”

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