A doctor has been given the go-ahead to prescribe a life-saving new drug - a month after the plight of a desperately-ill patient was exposed by The Northern Echo.

Ann Tittley, 55, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, turned to the Prime Minister for help when specialists told her they were unable to prescribe a highly-effective new drug to treat her leukaemia.

Ironically, the drug - Glivec - was first trialled on UK patients in the North-East three years ago.

It has been licensed as safe to use, but the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has not yet ruled on whether the drug - which costs £18,000 per patient per year - should be prescribed throughout the NHS. The ruling is expected next month.

In theory, doctors can prescribe Glivec while they wait for NICE's decision. But they say hospitals are reluctant to make new drugs available without NICE's approval.

Recent clinical trials show that Glivec can "cure" seven out of ten chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) sufferers and slow its progress in almost all cases.

The disease affects about 4,000 Britons, with 800 new cases a year.

While chemotherapy and radiotherapy can slow the disease, without a bone marrow transplant the outlook is poor.

Mrs Tittley's consultant at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, Dr Mohsen Mahmoud, was not able to prescribe the new drug.

But last night, Mrs Tittley, who has a teenage son, revealed that Mr Mahmoud had finally been given the go-ahead and she has begun treatment this week.

"I want to thank The Northern Echo for the coverage and support you gave me with my fight for the new drug Glivec," she said.

"It was your brilliant article that started the ball rolling with articles appearing in national newspapers and television." She said she was "very relieved and very, very thankful" that she was being given the chance to try the new drug.

Desperation drove Mrs Tittley to contact her MP, Tony Blair. In her letter, she told the Prime Minister: "Glivec was my lifeline - at least it would give me a chance of beating this disease."

Mr Blair's agent wrote back, wishing her well, and said "it is up to individual health organisations to consider the evidence on treatment when deciding whether to fund new drugs". Encouraged, she tackled the problem head-on.

Mrs Tittley rang Nigel Porter, chief executive of Sedgefield Primary Care Trust, which manages the local NHS drug budget. "He was very good," she said. "He said he would get on to the hospital for me. I think he really made the difference."

Last Friday, an emergency meeting of Bishop Auckland hospital's drugs and therapeutic committee was held to discuss her case.

Mrs Tittley also praised Dr Mahmoud for writing to Mr Porter and the chief executive of the Bishop Auckland Hospital, John Saxby, asking to be be allowed to prescribe Glivec. Mr Porter said: "As far as I am concerned, it has never been a budget issue. It is about interpreting the NICE guidelines and this gave me the chance to talk to the hospital to see if there was a way of looking at this again."

Dr Alan McCulloch, medical director and chairman of the trust's drugs and therapeutics committee, said: "I understand how distressing this must be for Mrs Tittley and I pleased that the issue has now been resolved.

"I would like to stress that any decisions on prescribing Glivec are taken based on the best available clinical guidance and have never been based on funding.

"The aim of the trust's drugs and therapeutics committee is to ensure that our patients always receive the most appropriate treatments.

"We have sought to clarify the guidance relating to Glivec, which was open to mis-interpretation and have re-assessed the prescribing criteria based on the very latest guidance from NICE and the local cancer network."

But Professor John Goldman, of Hammersmith Hospital in London, the UK's leading expert on CML, said the restrictions on Glivec "are all about money." He said it was "crucial" that NICE allowed wider access to the drug.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said a circular was issued about Glivec at the end of 2001 making it clear that the NICE appraisal should not adversely effect the availability of the drug within the NHS.

She also pointed out that an extra £225m had been pumped into cancer drug budgets this year. "When considering the funding of any treatment currently being appraised by NICE, or where no appraisal has been commissioned, funding authorities are expected to use existing prescribing arrangements and consider the evidence available to them on the clinical effectiveness of the treatment," she said.