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Thirty-three-year-old Ben Franklin from London was diagnosed with Hepatitis C nine months ago. The virus can cause life-threatening liver damage.

A new drug which could cure his condition was approved by NHS England last year, but funding is limited to 10,011 people.

Ben lives in London where the Hepatitis C Trust says waiting times can be long in comparison with some parts of England.

He says the NHS has told him that that he cannot be considered for the drug because his liver was not damaged enough, despite him being in pain and not being able to walk far.

Ben is now buying a cheaper copy of the drug from Bangladesh, a route which the Hepatitis C Trust estimates as many as 1,000 other patients have taken.

He says that if he lived elsewhere in England, he could have had the drug treatment by now.

Charles Gore from the Hepatitis C Trust says that the problem is not uncommon: "Two people with exactly the same state of liver damage could present themselves in different parts of the country, and in one they'll be able to walk in and get Hepatitis C treatment immediately and get cured. In another part of the country, they may go there and be told 'sorry, you're going to have to wait'."

NHS England said it was regularly reallocating unused Hepatitis C treatments to places with waiting lists. It also revealed that the number of patients treated will increase by 25% next year.

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