Patient in pain says no to help

BIG-HEARTED folk have offered a helping hand to a man whose jaw is crumbling — but he has turned them all down.

Glyn Rees (pictured) is recovering from throat cancer and should have started treatment for pain relief at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport six weeks ago. But he has no transport to get him there.

His story sparked a response from generous Evening Post readers who were willing to take him to hospital.

But Mr Rees has turned them down. He says he wants to see a long-term solution to the situation so nobody else will have to go through the same ordeal.

He said: "I would like a policy set down in the health service.

"If I get taken, what happens in a few months, when someone else has to fight to get there?

"I wouldn't want anyone to go through this."

The 51-year-old, whose jaw has cracked in half, said: "I am overwhelmed by the response."

Mr Rees has been told the ambulance service is unable to take him from his home in St Helen's Road, Swansea, and he cannot drive because he is on morphine to ease the pain. He said the treatment may as well have been "on the moon" because of the troubles.

While he was diagnosed with throat cancer five years ago, radiotherapy damaged the blood supply on the left side of his face, which has led his jaw to crumble and his teeth to fall out.

Doctors have offered him oxygen therapy for six weeks in Newport, which would allow him to have an operation to reconstruct his jaw bone, and then a further six weeks' treatment afterwards to make sure it works.

But now, weeks after he should have started the treatment, Mr Rees, whose cancer is in remission, is still awaiting the go-ahead for his transport plans.

His elderly father, Herbert Rees, said: "He has been abandoned.

"All he has is me and his blind mother.

"He can't eat or drink. He is not in pain — he is in agony.

"I'm the only one who can take him, but I don't know where I will find the money." Dunvant councillor Nick Tregoning said he had written a letter with Assembly Member Peter Black, to Health Minister Edwina Hart asking for something to be done.

"I think it is appalling because it is someone who is in desperate need of the treatment," he said. A spokeswoman for ABM University NHS Trust said: "Oxygen therapy is provided in Newport and the service is funded by Health Commission Wales (HCW). However, HCW does not cover patients' travelling costs and there is no agreement with the ambulance service to take patients to Newport.

"Hospital trusts reimburse travelling costs for patients when there is a clinical or medical need and the patient is on benefit. If we did provide transport, we would need to look into the most cost-effective method."