I don’t understand the reasons for NICE’s refusal to allow Alzheimer sufferers access to drugs costing £2.50 a day at the early stage of this terrible, soul destroying illness.

There was enough evidence on the news this morning from sufferers who described the incredible difference it had made to their lives in a matter of weeks.

If the drugs do not prove effective, then surely the medication will be stopped, why can it not be left to the doctors’ discretion? Why deny them that option which could totally transform their life? There is never one drug that suits everybody, it’s often trial and error before the right one is discovered.

I do not understand why NICE insist that these drugs should only be prescribed to patients when the condition has further deteriorated, rather than at its early stages. It must be more cost effective to prevent any illness from worsening, particularly one as distressing and debilitating as Alzheimer’s, than paying for long term treatment and care.

NICE says the drugs are not value for money – surely they should let the sufferers decide that, isn’t that why we live in a democracy? I hope NICE’s latest decision will be subject to a further appeal or judicial review.

The Alzheimer’s Association is naturally outraged with NICE, claiming their decision is badly flawed. They are the experts on this illness and NICE disregarded their professional evidence.

My butcher’s wife has Alzheimers, I saw the fear in her eyes when she told me about the dreadful diagnosis, she had seen the suffering it caused a close relative. My neighbour’s mother is in a care home suffering a more advanced form of Alzheimer’s, she still does not know her son was married a couple of weeks ago.

NICE have failed to justify their reasons for denying these life-saving drugs to Alzheimer patients in its early stages, yet you really couldn’t get better value for money at £2.50 a day, how penny pinching is that?