Father-of-two hopes to join clinical tests
Leukaemia sufferer David Wong has searched the Internet in vain for months in the hope of being able to sign up for clinical trials of the experimental drug STI-571.
The father-of-two said he hoped to get on the drug trial programme at Queen Mary Hospital because he saw it as the last chance of saving his life.
Mr Wong, 44, was diagnosed in 1998 after seeing a doctor for a mild fever. Blood tests showed he had the disease. He then saw several specialists, including one at Hammersmith Hospital in London. The diagnosis was confirmed in December 1998.
At Queen Mary Hospital he was put on the drug interferon, which can cause serious side-effects. It did not help much and he decided to stop the daily injections in October.
Mr Wong said he had been seeing a doctor at Prince of Wales Hospital since October. He had only recently learnt of the Queen Mary trials and hoped to join the programme after being turned down by an American doctor who said his illness was not advanced enough for him to take part in US drug trials.
He said he was also on the bone-marrow donor search list after tests showed none of his siblings were a match.
