 | 'I can point out where hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money are wasted by governments in London, Edinburgh and Brussels - millions that could have been diverted to ending the prescription payment penalty.' Fergus Ewing MSP in the Scotsman, 6 th May 2006. |  |
MARGARET Ewing, MSP, one of Scotland's most charismatic politicians, died from breast cancer after putting up a fierce fight against the disease. Today her husband and fellow Scottish National Party MSP, FERGUS EWING, takes the difficult step of writing about her last months. He describes the huge impact witnessing his wife's battle has had on his life, and backs The Scotsman's campaign to end prescription charges for people with chronic or life-threatening diseases.
MY WIFE Margaret, who passed away on 21 March, was successfully fighting breast cancer. She did so with the help of the excellent staff of the NHS, of whom she was very fond.
After her surgery for the cancer was successfully completed, she was advised she would need to take the drug tamoxifen for a period of five years.
I believe that this period of five years' prescription is normal for this drug, for some women who have had breast cancer surgery. In addition to taking tamoxifen, she had a number of other drugs that she had to take each day - some of them twice a day. This involved her in a daily routine which will be familiar to many readers.
For Margaret, every morning started with having to take several drugs. She kept them in one case. It was not a pleasant start to each day, and it took a while for the drugs to "kick in" as she put it. This process took up to an hour at the start of each day.
This is a side of life that is private, unseen, and which some of those who have had breast cancer or other diseases must go through day after day. As with other experiences in life, you are not really aware of what this means until your life or family are directly affected by it.
To pay large sums each week for drugs for cancer or lifelong chronic conditions, such as osteoporosis, amounts to a tax on ill health.
It is a monetary penalty for those in pain, and creates an incentive for some to do without the drugs they need in order to save money.
Perversely, that weekly monetary penalty may be more than the fines meted out by the courts for those who commit minor offences.
But unlike the fines due by criminals, those with ill health have to pay. They have no choice: they must pay up or they won't be prescribed their drugs.
I am pleased that my own party, in a health policy paper, has made a commitment to abolishing prescription charges for all those with a chronic health condition, those with cancer, and those in full-time education or training. We will also phase out prescription charges for the rest of the population.
After one of my frequent MSP surgeries in my constituency, I remember chatting with some of the women in the council office. They were to have a small celebration later because one of them had just "served her time" - had her last pill - her five years of tamoxifen was over.
My Margaret was over halfway through her five years. She did not begrudge paying for the drugs, as we are well paid. But she was very concerned that others, less well off, have to pay very large amounts of money for the drugs each week - year in year out.
Perhaps because my own wife had breast cancer, other women feel they can mention their own experience to me, knowing that I have some understanding of what they have to go through.
I think that the courage of those women who, like my Margaret, or her friend Rhona Brankin MSP, and Eileen Hogg - who told her story about paying for her breast cancer drugs at the start of The Scotsman's campaign - who have all spoken out in public about their experiences, has helped to remove the taboo or stigma about breast cancer surgery which, in the past, may have led some women not to go to a doctor, and even suffer premature death.
I hope those days are now over. But the experiences of women after the trauma of diagnosis is over, and the surgery itself has been successfully completed, may not yet have been sufficiently well told.
In Margaret's own case, she knew she had to take the drugs, and she did take them as directed. It was not fun, and sometimes was a bit of an ordeal. But the consultant prescribed them, she took them and she needed them. And they were working. In her last visit to her consultant, in February this year, she was told the cancer had not returned.
Sadly she was diagnosed with a form of anaemia and, some weeks later, passed away. But without the treatment that she had received from our NHS, and but for the drugs which she took, she may well have died years earlier. Just a generation or two ago, she probably would have.
The human side of taking drugs, each day, for years or for one's lifetime, is hidden from view, but out there are tens of thousands of people for whom it is just part of daily life.
As advances are made by scientists, and more drugs are developed, with breakthroughs for many diseases, this issue will become more and more controversial.
How we, as a nation, pay for this is a fair and important question and one any responsible party aspiring to government must address.
I can point out where hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money are wasted by governments in London, Edinburgh and Brussels - millions that could have been diverted to ending the prescription payment penalty.
Meantime, I hope that The Scotsman's campaign will play a significant part in bringing an end to prescription charges for those with cancer or chronic health conditions.
MARGARET Ewing, the MSP for Moray who died in March, aged 60, was part of the Ewing political dynasty - one of the most successful political families of modern times.
In 1983 she married Fergus Ewing and became the daughter-in-law of Winnie Ewing, the SNP founding figure.
Each of the Ewings was seen as a distinct personality: Winnie, extremely influential and the strong role model for aspiring women politicians; Margaret, a firebrand and driving force; and Fergus, an accomplished campaigner who was more of a backseat driver to his more experienced mother and wife.
To outsiders, the three Ewings may have been seen as a "wedge" within the party, but any jealously from fellow politicians was outweighed by the experience and energy they brought to the SNP movement.
Mrs Ewing, born in Lanarkshire, trained as a teacher and joined the SNP in 1966. Eight years later she made her mark by entering parliament as MP for East Dunbartonshire.
She lost the seat five years later and, after a failed attempt to get back in 1983, she succeeded in 1987, winning Moray from the Tories. She became the SNP's parliamentary leader at Westminster until defeated by Alex Salmond in a contest for the leadership of the party.
Political battles for the Ewings, against the opposition and within their own party, are part of their very existence.
In January Mr Salmond was regarded as scoring a "notable victory" against the Ewings when Richard Lochhead, his favoured candidate, was chosen to fight Moray for the SNP in next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
His rival had been Annabelle Ewing, Fergus's sister and the latest member of the family to try to gain a seat at Holyrood.
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