A woman with cancer has accused health officials of playing God with people's lives.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has refused to recommend that two bowel cancer drugs be made available on the NHS, because they are too expensive.

Lynn Novak has spent £45,000 on three courses of one of the drugs, Avastin, administered privately and says it has had a remarkable effect.

She and her husband Stefan are suing their primary care trust to get the money back and to have any future courses of the treatment on the NHS.

Mrs Novak, 59, from Gorse, Close, Copthorne, near Crawley, is furious at Nice's decision. She said: "It is incredible that decisions can be made like this on the grounds of cost.

These are people's lives we are talking about.

"Nobody has the right to play God and condemn those who cannot afford private treatment to die. I am evidence that the treatment has worked.

"The drug is out there, it is available, but you won't get it for free. That is appalling.

Everyone has a right to life."

Mrs Novak is sole carer for her husband, who is blind and needs dialysis for a kidney problem.

She was diagnosed with bowel cancer in November 2004 and by January 2005 the cancer had spread to the liver. She was given chemotherapy but it did not work and the tumours in her liver multiplied to ten.

In December, Mrs Novak, who works for British Airways, was told she had six months to live. She used £15,000 to pay for Avastin and her tumours immediately started shrinking.

They are continuing to get smaller with each treatment.

She said: "Crawley Primary Care Trust says the drug does not work so they won't use it but Nice are not using it because of the cost, so we are getting different messages.

"I have paid National Insurance contributions all my life and this is a treatment that works for me. I work and my husband works and I am a productive member of society.

"Now I want something back but I'm not being allowed.

"I can't keep on paying out as I don't have a bottomless pit of cash. If I did not have this treatment I would die. Just what is the cost of a life?"

Mr Novak, who runs a small company providing opportunities for people who are blind, said: "If we have to sell everything then we will because I would rather have my wife alive than anything."

Avastin works by starving cancerous tumours of blood.

Research has shown it can extend life expectancy by an average of five months.

The other drug that Nice has turned down is Erbitux which is usually used after chemotherapy has failed. It was found to extend life expectancy by at least four months for half of patients. A course of Avastin costs on average £17,665 per patient and Erbitux £11,739.

Nice's deputy chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe said neither drug represented a good use of "scarce NHS resources".

Hilary Whittaker, chief executive of the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, said the decision was a scandal, adding: "We are now the only nation in the EU not to offer these drugs."

A Crawley PCT spokeswoman said: "A request for Avastin was referred to a Patient with Individual Needs (PIN) panel for consideration.

"All PCTs in West Sussex have access to this panel, which includes clinicians and can ask it to convene to consider a special request where a treatment or drug is not automatically provided by the NHS."

She added: "In this case the PIN panel considered the request for Avastin twice and turned down the request on both occasions because there was insufficient clinical evidence to support the request.

The panel did not refuse to fund it on financial grounds."