Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha's heartbreak as she opens up on friend's cancer battle

EXCLUSIVE: TV star Nadia Sawalha has been campaigning for a life-extending cancer medication to be made available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha has shared the devastating reason why she is campaigning for a life-extending cancer drug to be made available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The 59-year-old has been campaigning tirelessly to help fund a legal appeal that could enable the NHS to roll out Enhertu. The life-changing medication is a chemotherapy drug and targeted therapy used to treat certain types of cancer including breast cancer.

Thousands of women across England, Wales and Northern Ireland living with secondary breast cancer faced turmoil when Enhertu was denied for use on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to its cost. However, the treatment is currently available in Scotland and 65 other countries.

When asked why she decided to get involved in the poignant campaign, Nadia exclusively said: "My friend desperately needing it, secondary breast cancer and being in the room with her when she was told her previous line of treatment had ended and she needed Enhertu.

"We only heard three days before that they weren't going to make it available. It was heartbreaking, she's so stoic all the time, she's always worrying about other people but she broke down."

This week, Nadia revealed that she had lost another friend to breast cancer who was also helping with the campaign to have the treatment available in England Wales and Northern Ireland. After previously campaigning topless outside the House of Parliament, Nadia shared that one of the women who joined her had passed away.

She told Express: "Since that day when we were on the green, one of our women has actually died, she died two days ago in a hospice and her next line of treatment would've been Enhertu.

"It's just awful and then we have a number of women from that group... there's 31 women a day who die from secondary breast cancer, there's a number of women from that photograph who, they need Enhertu next. They have young children, they are young women and it's just heartbreaking."

Nadia now has a meeting in place with the Health Secretary next month. She said: "We're hoping he's a bit more sympathetic to us as he's had cancer himself when he was younger."