Cancer drugs 'should be free'

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A Northern Ireland charity has called for prescription charges for cancer patients to be scrapped.

Heather Monteverde from Macmillan Cancer Support urged Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to drop the drugs charges - "a tax on the sick".

"It is wrong for cancer patients in Northern Ireland to pay... when patients in the rest of the UK don't," she said.

The Prime Minister has abolished the charges in England as of next year.

This will bring England into line with Wales where charges were abolished last April. Scotland is in the process of phasing the charges out.