NHS to offer preventative breast cancer drug

Healthy women who have an increased risk of getting breast cancer will be offered drugs on the NHS to help prevent the disease developing.

New guidance for doctors in England and Wales says the drug tamoxifen or raloxifene taken daily for five years can cut breast cancer risk by 40%, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

The NHS in Scotland has also said it will give the drug to those at high risk and it is likely that Northern Ireland will soon follow suit.

Fergus Walsh reports.