After the first year and a few months to grieve for our beloved Robin things started to look a bit brighter and we both went back to work thinking we had survived the earthquake. It wasn’t until we went back to see her consultant that things didn’t look as rosy as we thought. He wanted to run more test and he told us not to worry as they were just standard test. However, a few days later we received a phone call from the consultants’ secretary asking for us both to return. It was the “both” word that kept us awake as if things had been normal, they would have just asked for Haylee to attend. Ten painfully long days later we arrived at the hospital dreading to hear what by now was going to be bad news. As usual we had a hard time finding somewhere to park but eventually, we noticed a space and paid a fortune for the pleasure. As our appointment was extra to his normal load we had been stuck on the end and we knew from previous experience that he would be running late and started to worry that the two hour parking slot we had paid for was not going to be enough. Thankfully the waiting area had a small café run by the British Red Cross. We were too nervous to eat or drink anything, but I was hoping that the lady would give us some change for the meter. She knew what I wanted even before I asked but she was very pleasant about it. We had a brief chat and she told me that parking was an ongoing problem that just kept getting worse. I joked with her that she was lucky as she probably got free parking being a volunteer. I must admit that very few things shock me anymore but when she told me that she had to pay just like the nurses and doctors, I was totally taken aback. The nice lady went on to state that they were struggling to get volunteers to run the small café as people couldn’t afford to pay for the parking. This was shocking news to me and totally wrong. How low can the NHS get?
It’s funny how things like this stick in your mind when faced with the possibility of a tragedy. We finally got in to see the consultant and you could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t going to tell us we had won the lottery. What came next took us to a new low. He explained that the initial treatment had worked well but when they ran the check-up test a few weeks ago they had found a growth in the scar tissue. We assumed that this would mean more chemo followed by more surgery, but he said that he was not optimistic about the outcome as the cancer could have spread to other parts of the body. We would have to decide if going through the chemo route again was worth it as he couldn’t see it extending Haylee’s life expectancy. We sat in sheer disbelief and eventually got the strength back to ask him if there was another drug or anything that would help. Even if it gave us a few more months together we would try anything including herbal or even witchcraft. He did say that there was a new drug out called Kadcyla, but this wasn’t available on the NHS as it hadn’t been approved by Nice. He said that Kadcyla can be used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic breast cancer) after prior treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin®) and a taxane. He went on to explain further that Kadcyla is made to find HER2-positive cells and attach to them. It tells the cells to stop growing and tells the body’s immune system to destroy them. Kadcyla also goes inside the cell to keep fighting from the inside. Kadcyla releases the chemotherapy inside the cell. The chemotherapy goes to work inside the cell, causing it to die. It sounded ideal but without it being available on the NHS there was no way we could afford it.
If it was to save Haylee’s life then we would sell the house and start fundraising to help meet the cost but Haylee said that she would not let me take that route just to have a few extra months or a few years with me. I had never cried in public before, but I couldn’t keep it in. Our consultant said to go away and think about the route we wanted to take. We went away and after a thousand million tears later came up with the only option left open to us and that was to try and find a way to get the Government to step in and make this wonder drug available to all who needed it. The small amount of research I did on the internet showed that the NHS spent more than £1bn on drugs developed from publically funded research in 2016. One campaigning group Global Justice Now stated that "In many cases, the UK taxpayer effectively pays twice for medicines: first through investing in R&D, and then by paying high prices for the resulting medicine once ownership has been transferred to a private company." It went on to state “drug companies are generating huge private profits from public funds.” The internet stated that there are around 45,000 new diagnoses of breast cancer each year in England. After digging deeper, I felt very angry and if I had met the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt MP, I would have probably ripped his throat out with my bare hands and ended up well and truly in a mess. A husband is there to protect his wife and I couldn’t do a thing to help.
I did the usual things like having a meeting with my local MP but all he promised was to raise it with the Secretary of State but gave me a load of bull shit about why the NHS couldn’t buy every drug out there. My local MP had taken over the role from his father who in turn had taken over from his father. I was living in part of the UK where the voters go through the motion every few years which really is a waste of time and money. It is one of the safest conservative seats in the country and if they placed a blue rosette on the backside of a cow the yokels would vote for it. I even wrote to the then Prime Minister but all I got back was a standard reply. I then decided to write to the Secretary of State and copy the letter to all the national press that I could think of in the vain hope that they may print it and embarrass the Government in to doing something about the chronic situation.
Dear Secretary of State,
My wife is dying from breast cancer. She has a form known as HER2 positive. We have been told there is a drug called Kadcyla which is produced in the USA by the Genentech group which is part of the massive Roche Group, and it could give my wife a few more years of life. We were however told that the drug isn’t available on the NHS as it’s too expensive and that the wrongly named organisation called NICE have not approved its use. Without this drug my wife will die many decades before her time, and I urge you to get tough with these drug companies to make the price they charge more reasonable and affordable to the NHS. I know that you will say that your civil servants would have already tried that route and have had the point that it cost drug companies a fortune to develop the drug and they want a return on their investment. I therefore hope that you won’t mind me suggesting a way around the problem which would hopefully postpone my wife’s death as well as bringing hope to thousands of cancer sufferers in the UK. This is what needs to be done. Both you and the Prime Minister call the CEO of the drug company Roche to an urgent meeting at Downing Street and inform them that you wish to speak with them face to face about many of the drugs they supply to the NHS. Before this meeting you will get your civil servants to produce a list of drugs and other medical equipment and supplies that the NHS purchased every year from Roche. They should also find an alternative supplier for the main common drugs from another NHS supplier. At the meeting you simply present the facts to the CEO stating that you want these new drugs supplied at a reasonable price. You should also inform the CEO that you want an answer by 16:00 hours tomorrow as you have called a meeting of the national and international press where we will announce either that we have come to an undisclosed agreement with Roche to supply these wonder drugs at an affordable price or that the NHS will give notice to the Roche group that the NHS will no longer use their services. The PM should make the CEO aware that he has requested that Roche shares be suspended on all stock markets until 17:00 GMT hours tomorrow due to some important news which will be made public then. This move has been put in place so that there is no insider trading, especially if certain people want to sell their shares at the current high rate. Of course, if you decide that you can’t meet our demand then we will tell the press that Roche has lost one of its biggest customer in the world. I hate to think what your share price will be if you decide to take that route. I look forward to meeting you soon.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.<
br />
Lucas and Haylee Payne
Unfortunately, none of the nationals printed the letter and the minister never even replied as he was too busy fighting the Junior Doctors in forcing new contracts upon them. It was also probably down to the fact that large international companies donate huge sums of money to the conservative party, so that they can finance the cost of the next general election. Sadly, my wife passed away a few weeks later and I swore then that I would make those responsible pay for their in-action. One thing is for sure they won’t be getting an invite to my gathering in Bedford but hopefully they may pull their fingers out and man up for the job they were elected to do.
Chapter 4. Lucas returns to work
After my wife’s funeral which was attended by many of her friends from the counties education establishments and hundreds of prison officers who had come to support me, I decided that I wasn’t going to sit around and mope and watch day-time TV. There is only so much you can take being a couch potato and after hearing about yet another shooting in an America school, police brutality and another famine in Africa (both could be made less traumatic if their governments faced their continuing nightmare). I feel sorry for the USA as more and more innocent children are slaughtered year upon year and nobody does sod all about it. The gun lobby in the senate must love having blood on their hands as they are still living in the good old days where Wyatt Earp would come along and sort out the bad boys. They stick to the same old tune that it’s the right of every American to be able to own a gun. This may have been ok years ago, but don’t they realize that children are now brought up playing violent computer games and that many more Americans are now hooked on drugs. So, if you want to continue playing Russian roulette with children’s lives please place a media ban on the matter as I personally get sick of hearing about it on the TV news.
I was welcomed back by a lot of officers who offered their condolences and even the inmates had got to hear of my loss and had kindly sent a deepest sympathy card around the wings which was signed by over 100 inmates. One thing that had been kept away from me during my wife’s illness was that my old friend governor Jack Smithers had had a heart attack and although he thankfully survived, had been forced to take early retirement. I was summoned to the new governor’s office on my second day back and we immediately hated each other. Jack Smithers had made the post of governor after rising through the ranks and he was one of the lads, although he knew when to draw the line. He had been replaced by a fast track officer called Marcus Hunt who was more interested to see his name on the door than to spend time on the shop floor. He didn’t even bother to offer his condolences and I was told in no uncertain terms that he didn’t like me being the shop steward for the Prison Officers Association and a prison counsellor.
The Prison Officers Association had been fighting the management for the right to strike for years now and it wasn’t loved by the establishment. I told him that I had been a counsellor for many years and my work had been recognised by HMP service and was believed to be one of the best in the land. The new governor said that they would be employing outside counsellors and my post would no longer exist. I informed him that regarding the POA it’s up to the officers to select who they want to represent them and not the management. He started to go red in the face and even redder when I told him that I would take any dismissal to the POA and the courts. I left before I strangled the bastard.
Two days passed and I had heard no more about it but was once again called to the governor’s office. When I entered there were two other staff members there who I didn’t recognise but they probably came from the same ‘rent a suit’ shop that he had sprung from. I was told to sit down and was told that a prisoner had reported that the mobile phone he had been found with had been supplied by me. I was totally shocked and asked who it was who had made such an allegation, but I was told that it was confidential. I said that it was untrue, and the Prison Officers Association would fight my case. He said that he didn’t care what I did but I had a choice. I looked at him with a blank expression and he said that I could either take early retirement with a full pension or face the music. He also said that he would give me until noon tomorrow to give him an answer. I left early that day and went home and had a long chat with Haylee (who obviously wasn’t there) and a large bottle of whisky. My mind kept saying fight the bastard, yet Haylee said take retirement and start to live again. Haylee won the battle.
The next morning, I had arranged to see four inmates for counselling, and I told them that this would be our last session and told them the reason why. They were angry, but not at me, but at the establishment. All of them said that they knew I would never do such a thing and that some inmate would be getting a few years off his sentence for helping solve the new governor’s problem. They all asked who it was that had accused me, and I said that they wouldn’t say. I shook their hand and wished them all the best.
As soon as I knew the new governors name, I ran a check on him to see where he had come from. Finding out was more difficult than I first thought as the establishment (quite rightly) didn’t want prisoners getting hold of any data regarding staff. In the end I called an old friend and he told me that Marcus Hunt had risen through the ranks working at the “Private” prisons. Just so you understand what I’m rabbiting on about the UK has two types of prisons, there are 14 privately managed prisons in England and Wales, shared between three companies. Five are in the hands of G4S, four are operated by the French firm Sodexo and the other five are under the control of outsourcing company Serco. In total, private institutions make up around 15pc of the country’s prisons, with the rest managed by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). State run prisons end goal is to house prisoners to rehabilitate them and at the same time remove them from the streets. A private prison, on the other hand, is run by a corporation. That corporation's end goal is to profit from anything they deal in. I’ll let you decide which the best option is.
Liz Truss, who was at that time was the Justice Secretary, has said G4S will have to pay for the special Tornado units sent in to HMP Birmingham during the 2018 riots. There have been a series of other fines, further souring public opinion against a company that was already scowled upon for its failure to provide enough security staff for the 2012 London Olympics, resulting in army reinforcements being parachuted in. As another example, an electronic tagging scandal that engulfed both Serco and G4S in 2013 led to the abandonment of plans to privatise three prisons in South Yorkshire for which Serco was the leading bidder. What my friend could tell me was that Marcus Hunt had been working at the privately run HM Prison Northumberland which is a Category C men's prison and is operated by the private prison firm Sodexo Justice Services under contract with Her Majesty's Prison Service. It is rumoured that he couldn’t handle it at HMP Northumberland, which is one of Britain’s biggest jails, which had descended into chaos, with failing alarms, prisoners calling the shots and a troubling drug problem sweeping its corridors. He had obviously jumped ship before it sank as he didn’t want to go down with the captain.
At five minutes to twelve I was about to meet the new governor and accept his offer but there was a commotion from A wing, and it got out that someone had been knifed and had died. As I was walking down to the dead man’s cell a couple of inmates whispered to me that he wouldn’t be making up any stories any longer. I was a few minutes late for my meeting but explained to the new governor and his two look-a-like cronies that his little trick hadn’t worked, and it had cost an inmate his life. I told him that he may have got away by pulling tricks at Northumberland (which is known as a nursery category C prison) but he won’t get away with it at a category B prison. I went on and told him that with the death of his source he had no evidence now but to his surprise I told him I was taking early retirement as I didn’t want to work under an amateur like him. He would have to learn that actions in a small closed community had consequences and I didn’t want to be part of his dirty work. I told him that every inmate and warden kn
ow about his dirty work, but he will have to work and live with that. I told him that I would retire on my terms but would be within 4 to 6 weeks. He was speechless as I left, and I couldn’t have been prouder of myself on how I had handled the nasty piece of shit. I worked on for five weeks which gave me time to back up all the files I held at home and to see all on my currant list of inmates who were receiving counselling. I was also able to hand over the work that I had done as a shop steward for the POA.
After leaving the prison I heard that the inmates had nearly rioted once they knew I had been forced out but sad as I was to leave, I knew that I was now a free man to make those pay for my wife’s early death and for HMP service treating me like crap, after giving the prison service nearly twenty five years of my life. I knew then that this was the start of the Bedford heist where I could show the world that the average working man wasn’t going to let them get away with treating the masses like dog dirt.
The Bedford Heist Page 3
