Doctors in the UK gave me two years to live. In Germany, it was a different story

When Bryan Peterson, 49, suffered a sudden seizure last June, he was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour and given less than two years to live.

Peterson, a local councillor in the Shetland Islands, began radiotherapy and chemotherapy for glioblastoma in Aberdeen. But doctors told him this would only help him to manage the condition rather than give him more time.

So for the past six months, he has been travelling to Germany to receive groundbreaking private treatment which doctors there believe could help him beat the disease.

Worst of all, this treatment is available in Britain, but Peterson is unable to access the clinical trials via NHS England because he lives in Scotland.

Peterson and his wife, Karlin Anderson, have funded the first six months of private immunotherapy treatment in Germany with their life savings. But the 49-year-old says he felt it was his only option after doctors in the UK gave him 12-16 months.

“You don’t want to put a price on a life, but when you’re looking at invoices at that level, you really have to make those decisions,” he said.

“You’re sitting thinking, this is a gamble, for a handful of months to get through this next phase and you’re thinking, is this a sensible thing to be doing?

“But because there are not really any other options, you have to just put your money on the roulette wheel and just trust the information you’ve been able to glean [from research into treatments] whilst you are in a very difficult emotional state.”

Peterson is one of many British patients who are travelling abroad for innovative cancer treatments that remain inaccessible on the NHS, including forms of radiotherapy and blood cancer medicines.

The UK was top-ranked country in Europe in 2018 for providing access to new cancer drugs but has since dropped to 10th, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

Whether patients are able to access life-saving drugs is a postcode lottery.

Many patients in England are unable to access two innovative forms of radiotherapy that are known to be effective against several forms of cancer. Although ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) and molecular radiotherapy (MRT) are available on the NHS via specialist medical centres, these still have to apply to NHS England to fund its use.

New figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network show that a record number of Britons are funding private cancer treatment, with 78,310 admissions in the 12 months leading to September 2025.

For the past six months, Peterson has been travelling to IOZK clinic in Cologne, Germany for immunotherapy. The treatment activates the body’s immune defence against a tumour, and incorporates all available methods of cancer treatment, from immunological treatment to traditional chemotherapy.

In studies, these immuno-oncological therapies have been shown to be effective for a variety of tumour types, and are comparatively well-tolerated, according to the clinic.

Peterson said he felt he had no choice but to travel abroad for treatment, even though it was “incredibly logistically challenging and financially challenging”.

“Once you’ve finished your standard of care for the NHS, it feels like just a waiting game until [the cancer] comes back. Whereas going to Germany, it feels like we’re doing the correct thing. You feel like you might be altering the course of this.”

Peterson said he hoped more cash could be invested in curing his condition in future, and urged the NHS to improve access to innovative treatments for the disease in the UK.

“With this type of glioblastoma, it’s immediately considered terminal, and it would be good for people to feel a little bit more hope because when you’re only given 12 months then it’s difficult to maintain hope,” he said.

He and his wife have set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise £150,000 for the next six months of his cancer treatment, raising more than £135,000 in the first six days after setting it up.

Peterson paid tribute to the Shetland community who had donated and offered “unbelievable” support. “It makes me cry almost every time I think about it,” he said. “But that’s because it’s a genuine, real community where 32,000 people are stuck on a rock in the middle of the North Sea. We have evolved to have each other’s back. When the chips are down, the community goes into overdrive.”

In Britain, brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of people under 40, but have historically received only around 1 per cent of cancer research.

Campaign group Brain Tumour Research is calling for the NHS to introduce more innovative treatments for the disease, and in its recent manifesto for Scotland called on the Scottish Government to increase funding for research into brain tumours and increased access to clinical trials.

Hugh Adams, head of stakeholder engagement at BTR, said people travelling abroad were “being let down” by the NHS. He said: “When they have no hope and they have to go abroad. This is a stain on the NHS.

“By the time people access these things they are paying for, they are buying some time. They aren’t getting curative treatment, but they are buying some time, critically they are buying some hope. When they need that hope, they are buying it overseas. It shouldn’t be happening.”

NHS England, the Health and Social Care service in Northern Ireland, NHS Scotland and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which makes recommendations on whether new medicines should be available via the NHS, have been contacted for comment.