A CANCER victim's partner attacked the NHS last night for failing to fund a lifesaving drug after a landmark victory for patient power.

Barry Ogleby, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said it was a disgrace that women with breast cancer were still being denied the drug Herceptin - five years after his own battle to persuade the NHS to fund treatment for his partner.

He spoke out after a nurse fighting the disease won a legal battle with her local health authority to be prescribed the drug.

Barbara Clark , from Bridgwater, Somerset, was taking legal action in an attempt to be given Herceptin.

The mother-of-two was considering using the Human Rights Act to claim the NHS was denying her the right to life and had vowed to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights if her application had proved unsuccessful.

Speaking after yesterday's ruling Ms Clark said: "I now just hope that this treatment will be extended to other women in my position."

She added: "I start the drug treatment on the NHS in the next couple of weeks. It can increase life expectancy by 52 per cent, which means I've got a better chance of spending more time with my children.

"There are a lot of women with exceptional need. Everyone has the same need to life."

Despite being available for several years the drug is still only used as a "last resort" treatment.

But Ms Clark, a nurse who has a terminally ill 11-year-old foster son, argued that using the drug in the early stages of her illness may prolong her life.

Campaigners are calling for up to 2,000 women in the UK to be given the drug on the NHS as a first course of treatment for aggressive breast cancer.

Mr Ogleby, who spent five months fighting for his partner, Eileen Quigley, to be given the drug, said he was disgusted that the treatment was not more widely prescribed.

When the NHS eventually agreed to pay for Ms Quigley's treatment in June 2001, she immediately responded well.

But by then the cancer had spread throughout her body. She died in August 2001.

He said: "If Eileen had been given Herceptin earlier, her chances of survival would have been much improved.

"We saw doctors at the Royal Marsden, in London, who gave her a prognosis of 95 per cent. Up here, they gave her a 30 per cent chance.

"The Government and the medical authorities are dragging their feet over this drug. Any women with aggressive breast cancer should demand to be tested for Herceptin as a first-use drug."

The fact that women were still being denied access to Herceptin in 2005 was a disgrace, said 66-year-old Mr Ogleby.

"They can find billions to spend on other things, but not to save lives. There is no doubt about this, it is all about money," he said.

Ms Clark put her case to officials and experts from the Somerset Coast Primary Care Trust on Friday. It ruled yesterday that she can now receive the treatment.

She had been told a course of Herceptin would cost £40,000 privately. She had already raised more than half the money through fundraising and donations.

Somerset Coast Primary Care Trust confirmed it had decided to fund Ms Clark's treatment because of her exceptional circumstances.

Moira Davidson, director of the Northern Cancer Network which covers Tyneside, Wearside and north Durham, said Herceptin was one of a number of drugs under consideration for funding.

Requests for funding in the region are handled by drug and therapeutics committees, which make recommendations on which drugs local NHS organisations should pay for.

No one from the Cancer Care Alliance, which covers Teesside and south Durham, was available for comment.