A CANCER patient has won her seven-month fight to get the NHS to pay for a life-extending new drug.

Since January, County Durham Primary Care Trust (PCT) officials have turned down requests from kidney cancer patient Kathleen Devonport for access to a wonder drug called Sutent.

Despite being widely prescribed in Europe and America as a way of slowing down the progress of advanced kidney cancer, officials in the North-East have refused requests from Mrs Devonport and her NHS consultant.

Across England, only a handful of patients are receiving Sutent on the NHS, despite campaigns by a number of charities.

In desperation, Mrs Devonport, 64, from Chilton, near Newton Aycliffe, reluctantly decided to go private and pay for treatment.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, who came up with a cheque for £9,000 to cover three months of treatment, Mrs Devonport has been on a similar new drug called Nexavar for the past four months.

The funds ran out a month ago, and Mrs Devonport had to find £2,763 to pay for another cycle of Nexavar.

What made it even worse was the recent decision by the North-East and Cumbria Cancer Drug Approvals Group to agree to fund Sutent - but only for patients who have not been on any other cancer drug.

That decision was criticised by Dr Bob Motzer, from the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Centre in New York, who is arguably the world's leading authority on kidney cancer.

He said there was no question that Sutent should be given to new patients and patients who have previously been on Interferon, the standard treatment until Sutent was developed.

However, after another appeal from Mrs Devonport, accompanied by a copy of a recent hospital scan result showing that her illness has not progressed because of her treatment, the PCT has agreed to pay for her treatment in future.

Her husband Ray, 66, said it was wonderful news that his wife would finally get the medication she needed.

But Mr Devonport said he was "very angry" because her treatment had been delayed.

He said: "I am very relieved at this decision but I am very angry on Kath's behalf because we have lost time.

"This has delayed her treatment by a couple of months."

Mr Devonport said his wife was "doing all right" and she was still able to live a relatively normal life.

Mrs Devonport said she hoped that two other North-East kidney cancer patients, Ken Potts, from Blyth, Northumberland, and Barbara Selby, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, would now get the funding they needed.

Northumberland Care Trust has so far refused to pay for Mr Potts to have the drug, forcing him to go private and pay up to £3,000 a month out of his own pocket.

North Yorkshire and York PCT is considering an application for funding by Mrs Selby's cancer specialist.

Mr Devonport praised the role of The Northern Echo in highlighting the campaign.

"The Echo has been absolutely brilliant," he said.

Rose Woodward, spokeswoman for the Kidney Cancer Patient Support Group, said there was evidence that Sutent, used as a second-line treatment, could shrink tumours in up to 40 per cent of patients.

Sutent, like Nexavar, works by choking off nutrients that allow cancer cells to reproduce.

Both are fully licensed drugs and, in theory, can be prescribed by any qualified UK doctor.

But without the backing of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the NHS is reluctant to fund new drugs.

So far, Sutent and Nexavar have not been examined by Nice, but a review of this class of new drugs is expected.

Brian Avery, who represents Chilton on Sedgefield Borough Council and launched a fundraising appeal for Mrs Devonport two weeks ago, said he would still go ahead with fundraising events on October 18 and 19 at Chilton and Windlestone Workingmen's Club to help the family. He said: "They have had to fork out nearly £3,000 for drugs they should have had by right."

A spokeswoman for County Durham Primary Care Trust declined to comment.