A petition has been launched by an Usk woman, calling for improvements to cancer care provision in Wales. Julie McGowan was inspired to take action after hearing, from a close friend who is suffering from the disease, that the life-prolonging drug Avastin is automatically prescribed to patients in England, but its provision in Wales is decided by an independent board. The petition, aimed at Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services, Mark Drakeford AM, demands: "Allow people in Wales the same access to life-prolonging cancer drugs that people in England receive automatically." Since its launch on Sunday (8th June), the document has received more than 80 signatures. Mrs McGowan's close friend, Ann Wilkinson, has secondary liver cancer that is not responding to treatment. She is due to undergo a third and final round of chemotherapy but is concerned that the drug Avastin, routinely prescribed in England, may not be given to her following her up-coming consideration by the Individual Patient Funding Request Panel in Wales. Mrs McGowan said: "If she lived in England, she would be automatically given the drugs which target her particular type of tumour. "Because she lives in Wales she can't have the drugs because the Welsh Government seemingly can't afford to routinely prescribe them. Yet – did you know the Welsh Government operates 72 properties in Wales, and a further 14 worldwide? In 2010 the running costs for these were a staggering £29,361,780.00. "Did you know that in 2010-11, translation costs in the Assembly alone, cost £1,912,000? "Did you know that the wage for each assembly member is £53,852, without the added extras of committee chairmanships etc which add a minimum of £12,420 to each salary? Without the extras the bill is £3,231,120. "It's a shame they can't afford to save my friend's life. "The more I think about this, the more I realise that we all pay into the National Health Service, we should all receive the same care. "Ann is just disappointed with the system. She has had so many delays with her treatment." Mrs Wilkinson is in her early 70s, and is an active founding member of Usk Pantomime Players, who have raised more than £60,000 for the town's Memorial Hall in recent years. Monmouth MP David Davies has lent his support to the campaigners, he said: "It's a disgrace we don't have a Cancer Drug Fund in Wales. The NHS is of a poorer standard in Wales." The MP brought this issue up in the House of Commons on Monday (9th June). He said: "Living in and representing a constituency on the border has given me a unique insight into the different systems that have now grown up in the NHS in Wales and the NHS in England. "One thing has become absolutely clear – not just to me but to any independent organisation that has looked into this – and it is that the standards of care being delivered by this coalition Government are far higher in England than they are in Wales, where the NHS is run by members of the Labour party. "The reality is that, judged on virtually any single indicator that one would care to look at, standards of treatment are better in England than they are in Wales. "The waiting times for cancer have not been met in Wales since 2008; the four-hour accident and emergency target has not been met in Wales since 2009; the ambulance response times targets have not been met in Wales for 21 months; and in Wales the funding for the NHS from Labour, which claims to be the party of the NHS, has been cut by eight per cent while NHS funding has been ring-fenced in England. "If they think they are doing a good job with the NHS in Wales, they should allow patients in Wales and England to opt to go wherever they want to for treatment. "At the moment, we have two totally separate NHS systems, so patients in Wales do not have the right to access treatment in England and, of course, patients in England could not go to Wales. "A lot of patients in Wales want to be treated in England. I do not believe there are any patients in England who would want to be treated by the Labour-run NHS, but perhaps there are some out there who fancy waiting longer to be diagnosed and then waiting longer again to get the treatment that they have a right to expect." A statement on the Welsh Government website says: "Senior doctors and other health experts don't believe a Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) is the best way to treat cancer patients in Wales. "There is no evidence such a fund would improve the quality of life or survival rates of patients. Any money put into a CDF would have to be taken from treatments for other serious and potentially life-threatening conditions, as is the case in England – this would create unfairness in the health system. "For cancer patients who are worried there isn't a Cancer Drugs Fund in Wales, this is a complex and emotive issue. "However, senior clinicians believe we're taking the right approach – one based on what works, and which seeks to use limited NHS resources in the best way possible, based on benefits to all patients." A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "Research published in the British Journal of Cancer earlier this year concluded that Wales had a faster uptake of medicines most recently  launched and subsequently recommended by NICE than  England. "The All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) also appraises medicines for use in Wales, ensuring patients have access to treatments which have a proven evidence base and are demonstrated to be cost-effective. "A cancer drugs fund undermines this evidence-based approach and unfairly disadvantages those patients with serious conditions other than cancer. "If a clinician believes a patient will gain significantly more benefit from a treatment which is not routinely available on the NHS they can apply to their health board for funding through the Individual Patient Funding Request process." See the petition at http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/cancer-drugs-for-wales">www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/cancer-drugs-for-wales • Marianna Robinson, from Llandogo, who was recently featured in the Beacon, has been given confirmation that the NHS in Wales will be funding her treatment in Bristol.