Trudy Cusworth, who had started fundraising to try and raise £20,000 to afford a course of the breast cancer drug Avastin, has now been told that a new drugs fund will pay for the treatment.

Mrs Cusworth, who lives near Selby, with her husband and two young sons, was told at the end of last year that cancer, which was first diagnosed in 2006, had spread to her lungs and lymph nodes and was inoperable but that chemotherapy and the drug Avastin could help slow the progress of the disease and prolong her life.

Her specialist at St James's Hospital in Leeds recommended the treatment but this was rejected by a panel of other doctors at the NHS trust who had to assess the case before any funds were made available. Avastin is not freely available on the NHS and therefore doctors who want it usually have to go through their local health trusts to apply for special funding.

Despite this setback Mrs Cusworth's specialist applied to the new Emergency Cancer Drugs Fund and this time the application was successful. She says that she had already started trying to raise the money herself but is delighted by the news. She added: "The generosity of Yorkshire people has been overwhelming but it's the result I wanted because I didn't want to have to rely on other people. If you live in this country you have a right to treatment on the NHS and hopefully my plight will have opened people's eyes to the fact that if I can do it, they can."

Source: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Yorkshire-mum-in-cancer-drugs.6651130.jp