A NORTH-EAST man battling to obtain safer treatment for a rare blood condition has been given the go-ahead to mount a legal challenge that could help thousands of patients.

If Peter Longstaff, 45, from Newcastle is successful in the High Court, it could mean up to 3,000 people with haemophilia would qualify for a safer, artificial version of the human derived blood clotting agent Factor 8.

Mr Longstaff, who was infected with the Aids virus and three types of hepatitis after being given infected blood in the past, is campaigning for all haemophiliacs to have safer treatment.

He and wife, Carol Grayson, 43, argue that the human derived clotting agent imported from the US is still potentially unsafe because it could contain CJD-causing prions.

They say the only completely safe clotting agent is the artificial Recombinant Factor 8.

In recognition of that risk, since 1998 only children under 16 and haemophiliacs not previously treated with human-derived blood products are given the artificial agent in the UK.

Since 2000, Mr Longstaff has refused further treatment with the human-derived agent, demanding that he be put on Recombinant Factor 8, which costs £58,000 a year - roughly double the alternative.

In March, Mr Longstaff's consultant, John Hanley, wrote to Newcastle Primary Care Trust (PCT) saying that his patient should be treated with the artificial product.

But the PCT stuck to its view that the human-derived product was just as clinically effective.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Owen opened the way for Mr Longstaff to mount a full judicial review of this decision, agreeing that he had an "arguable case" that there had been a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Mr Longstaff is also pursuing legal action in the US against companies which supplied allegedly contaminated blood products.