No regrets over public cancer fight, Irfon Williams says

A campaigner has said he has no regrets over making a personal battle against cancer public in a fight for treatment.

Irfon Williams was forced to move to England to receive the drug Cetuximab to treat bowel cancer.

A medical review of the drug followed a campaign by 45-year-old Mr Williams and it is now available in Wales.

But the cancer patient, who lives in Bangor, Gwynedd, has learnt that despite initial treatment success the disease has now spread.

"I have wondered, very, very occasionally, whether I should have gone so public - should I have just gone quietly and got on with things," Mr Williams said.

"But very quickly I think back to the impact that some of our campaigning has had, and I've no regrets at all.

"Nothing but good can come out of the campaigning."

Mr Williams highlighted the decision to hold an independent review of how patients in Wales access drugs not normally available as one of the victories for the Right to Live campaign.

He was invited to sit as the only patient on the panel by Health Secretary Vaughan Gething in September.

"I think it shows the government has listened to patients' voices and understood that the process was unfair and a very difficult one for families to go through."

However, his focus has now shifted from his campaigning following the news his cancer has spread to his lungs and other parts of the body, and can no longer be cured.

Irfon with wife Becky and children Lois, Owen, Beca, Sion and Ianto

"I need to concentrate now on staying healthy, enjoying my life and living as long as I possibly can - I'm not planning on going anywhere in a hurry."

The father-of-five said that included preparing his younger sons for the worst, at the age of five and seven.

"It really is on their mind, especially Sion who is seven. One of his biggest fears is that daddy is going to die, and unfortunately I can't reassure him that daddy isn't going to die.

"We are preparing them for that in a way that is appropriate to their age and development without being too morbid about it."