N.B. man continues fight for cancer drug

A Fredericton man is promising to continue his fight to make the provincial government pay for an expensive cancer drug.

Andrew Goodridge spends thousands of dollars a month on Avastin, a drug covered by almost every other province in the country, to fight his colon cancer.

'I've been telling people to get out of this province as fast as you can, and go to Nova Scotia and establish some residency and establish some proper drug coverage.' — Andrew Goodridge

Now Goodridge is about to undergo life-saving surgery in Toronto, a surgical procedure that he said would not have been possible without Avastin.

"I'm pleased to say the tangerine-sized tumour that I had in my gastrointestinal tract has disappeared," he said.

But the drug that Goodridge believes is giving him a fighting chance costs him $6,200 a month.

And New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are the only two provinces that have not listed Avastin on the list of drugs that are covered by government drug plans.

Goodridge's family and friends have raised more than $100,000, which has given him the ability to continue his fight against cancer.

Others he's met in cancer waiting rooms cannot afford to raise that much money and he's offered them a simple solution.

"I've been telling people to get out of this province as fast as you can, and go to Nova Scotia and establish some residency and establish some proper drug coverage," he said.

If the tumours on his liver continue to shrink, Goodridge said he can have the final surgery that may save his life.

The New Brunswick government has indicated it is looking at funding the drug in the future. But it has given no timelines on when that decision might happen.