Simon Bush was told that he had prostate cancer three years ago. In January this year he went skiing for the first time in 25 years. “I had so much fun that I went again in March,” he said.

This is remarkable, considering that a little more than a year ago Mr Bush was in such pain that he struggled simply to get in and out of a car.

It was at that time that Mr Bush, 50, a retired banker who lives in Dulwich, southeast London, went on a new clinical trial for the drug abiraterone at the Royal Marsden Hospital.

By then Mr Bush had explored a number of treatments. When the illness was first diagnosed in the summer of 2005, he was treated with radiotherapy and hormone suppressants.

Although this worked initially, and Mr Bush was in remission, tests a few months later showed that the cancer had spread to his bones.

He started chemotherapy in April last year but the treatment failed.

“I could have tried other treatments, but chemotherapy did not work for me, and anything else was less effective,” Mr Bush said. “I didn’t realise it at the time, but there wasn’t a lot else that could be done.”

Doctors told him that he had no more than two years to live.

“The prognosis was appalling, and the cancer was aggressive,” Mr Bush said. “At the time I was in real trouble. I could not put up a picture without feeling pain. I had to lie down a lot. If I lay down the wrong way, I would have terrible back pain.”

In May last year he started taking part in the trial for the drug abiraterone and there were substantial improvements in his condition within a week. Within two months there was a 95 per cent reduction in key markers for prostate cancer. “It took a while for me to accept that I was getting better, and I didn’t stop taking painkillers for a while. Then I started experimenting, taking less and less, and within six weeks I stopped taking them.”

After more than a year of treatment with the new drugs, he has been skiing twice and as a gift for his 50th birthday in April, his wife, Nana, bought him a drum kit that he has started learning to play.

“I love it. These are things I’ve wanted to do all my life that I’m going to do now,” he said.

Mr Bush says that he has suffered minimal side-effects as a result of the new drug treatment. “Chemotherapy was appalling and didn’t work for me. Just having four little pills in the morning and putting on a little weight is nothing in comparison.”

He says that he doesn’t know how much more time the new drug has given him. “I don’t know, and I definitely didn’t ask,” he said, adding: “But I’ve been given 14 good months by this drug that I definitely would not have had without it.

“I’m not saying that I would be dead but, given how I felt, and the fact that I couldn’t do anything, to be able to do lots of things that a retired person would want to do is just incredible,” he said.

Mr Bush said that although he was lucky, he hoped others could benefit quickly from medical advances in the future.

“I think this sends a big message about these trials. There’s some fantastic stuff going on. It’s just a pity that people can’t get on them, and that the drugs don’t come out of the pipeline quick enough.

“I’m an example, and many others who have been on this trial are an example, of where it does work.”

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club