It costs just 82p a day, so why won't the NHS give us the drug that halts MS?

Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) costs 300 a year privately Drug is not available on the NHS as it has not been trialled to combat MS

By Anastasia Parks

PUBLISHED: 17:00 EST, 2 March 2013 | UPDATED: 17:01 EST, 2 March 2013

In July 2009, my husband took me to Henley Royal Regatta, the scene of many of his youthful triumphs. We enjoyed a long, hot sunny day sipping Pimms. It was bliss, not least because since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis the summer before, I had become increasingly anxious about outings to beaches or markets, or even parties and weddings.

For years, Id been suffering increasing tingling and numbness in my limbs that became impossible to ignore. A clicking hip while pregnant with my youngest son now seven was followed by weakness in my leg, numbness in both feet, night cramps and weak bladder control.

After myriad appointments, tests and MRI scans, I received my diagnosis: primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Patient choice: Anastasia Parks has to buy Low Dose Naltrexone privately

This is an uncommon form of the neurological condition which progresses inexorably. But like all variations of MS, in which the immune system turns inward and attacks the nervous system causing a raft of worsening symptoms, there is no cure. You are on your own.

Anything involving walking and standing became difficult. But then came salvation: a little-known treatment which I had been taking for just a month at that point called Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). I found, like thousands of other British MS patients, that it vastly improved my symptoms.

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It costs just 82p a day, so why won't the NHS give us the drug that halts MS?