A life saving scan that is currently free in parts of South Wales should be rolled out in North Wales, a cancer patient has said.

Stuart Davies, 70, from Llangollen has been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer for 11 months after the disease returned having been clear of it for six years.

As he faced up to another cancer battle doctors at Wrexham Maelor needed to find out where exactly the cancer had spread to in his body.

To do this he underwent a multiparametric MRI (MP-MRI )scan for which he had to pay £900, meaning he avoided having a painful biopsy.

After having the scan he found out that it was free to patients in other parts of the country but not in North Wales’ Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

Mr Davies is now petitioning the Welsh Assembly to consider his campaign to make the scan free for all patients in Wales.

He said: “The authorities ignore the fact that this has been brought in in England as well as in parts of South Wales. Men are dying from prostate cancer and we know this scan gives an immediate heads up without painful and dangerous diagnostic procedures.

“It’s only fair and right that patients are treated the same across all of Wales.

“I am saddened that it has come to this and we are forced to go to the Welsh Assembly to ask them to get the government to do the right thing.

“They need to act now and make high-quality scans before biopsy scans available to all eligible men across Wales who have a suspicion of prostate cancer.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The routine use of a multiparametric MRI scan before prostate biopsy is not currently recommended by the National Institute for Care and Excellence (NICE) but they are reviewing the guidelines on this in light of new evidence. Once we know the outcome of the review by NICE, we would expect health boards to revise their diagnostic pathways accordingly. Health boards are already considering the potential impact of the revised guideline through the Wales Urology Board.”

The petition can be found at: https://www.assembly.wales/en/gethome/e-petitions/Pages/petitiondetail.aspx?PetitionID=1358