CLIVE Stone is a rock. For a man to go through 31 brain tumours and still be standing is incredible.

For him at the same time to have continued campaigning on behalf of cancer patients, quite frankly, defies belief.

His work has led to the setting up of a £200m Cancer Drugs Fund that he says is supporting well over 25,000 patients.

The campaigning work he has done has been invaluable – and, thankfully, it has been recognised.

David Cameron has described him as “inspirational” and Prince Charles has presented him with an MBE, but nothing can really do justice to the good work he has done. The key question now is to ensure that his fight continues. Mr Stone knows his cancer will eventually kill him, but his mission is to ensure that the fund carries on.

As he tells the Oxford Mail – if the fund closes, lives will be at risk.

Given all of the efforts he has made to help fellow cancer patients, this would be a sad end to a remarkable story.

The Government must look very closely at the results of the fund – which are down to Mr Stone’s campaigning – and see the difference it has made.

Almost 323,000 people were diagnosed with cancer from 2008 to 2010, with 156,200 people dying in each of those years, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. Anything that can be done to save even a handful of lives must surely continue, allowing Mr Stone’s fight to carry on well into the future.