A CAMPAIGN to have a free cancer scan rolled out across all of Wales will be discussed this week at the Senedd.

Stuart Davies, 70, from Llangollen, paid Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) nearly £900 for a multi-parametric MRI (mpMRI) scan when a cancer that he'd beaten several years ago returned 18 months ago.

Since then he has campaigned heavily for the scan to be offered for free across every health board, most notably via the launch of a petition, the outcome of which will be discussed on Wednesday.

Betsi have also issued an apology to Mr Davies and accepted that they had made a mistake in charging for the scan. NICE have also updated their recommendations in response to the campaign.

Stuart Davies said: "Time has passed since I started my campaign, lots of column inches, lots of TV time. NICE has finally come out with their recommendations which mirror those of which we have been campaigning for.

"At our meeting with Mark Polin, chair of Betsi and Gill Harris, director of nursing, apologies were offered and accepted for the way my case had been handled and the money that I had paid for my scan was offered to be refunded which it has been.

"The cases for the other men that had contacted me who were in similar situation of having paid for their scans of being refunded was promised to be looked at and I believe they are being refunded as well.

"I asked at the time that the Betsi pay for scans in the interim period whilst the NICE guidelines were being implemented.

"One of the things I found out in my campaign was that the capacity to do these scans was there at the Spire private hospital next to the Maelor Hospital in Wrexham. I also found out that whilst us men were paying £900 for these scans the NHS allegedly only pay £365 for them, so by allowing men to pay for these scans and then reimbursing them that it is costing the NHS nearly three times as much.

"A powerful case to say, hey, NICE has said that these scans should be used as potential life savers, in the interim period why not pay the lower fee to the private sector until the infrastructure is in place to provide these scans on the NHS.

"Going on from there there has been a steady trickle of men hearing and seeing me in the media and contacting me for advice. One from west Wales wanting to know where to get a scan, one from around here, having to borrow money to pay for a scan, one from Llanrwst whose doctor doesn't even know about the campaign.

"These are the men who need help now. Potentially life saving scans that could at the stroke of a pen be offered free as they are in South Wales.

"So the buck still stops with Vaughan Gething.

"I call upon him to provide equitable funds and guidance to the health boards to enable free mpMRI scans across the whole of Wales rather than just allow it in his own constituency and a few others in South Wales."