Last month Hailey Mann pleaded for a drug to be made available that would save her life.
The 24-year-old cystic fibrosis sufferer had reached the stage where end-of-life plans were being discussed with doctors.
She wrote a heartbreaking open letter about her fears for the future and this newspaper had no hesitation in taking up her cause.
Thankfully, Hailey eventually received Kaftrio, which after two weeks has lived up to its billing as a “wonder drug”.
It has been transformative for a young woman who knew that time was running out.
To see the difference in her in such a short space of time is wonderful.
But Hailey only got to this stage because Kaftrio’s manufacturer, Vertex, gave her the drug on compassionate grounds.
Rules and regulations exist for very good reasons, especially when it comes to medicine, but in all likelihood Hailey would not have survived had she been forced to wait until Kaftrio was fully approved here.
Had the process been allowed to simply take its course, we may have been reporting on a very different story today.
