A woman battling terminal cancer has won her campaign for treatment that she believes will extend her life.

Sheila Norrington, from Barming, was diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago. She wanted the drug Cetuximab, which could help her live longer, but since May the NHS has twice refused to fund it.

This week she won her appeal against the decision, and will now receive the treatment.

Mrs Norrington now hopes to spend Christmas with her family, including two granddaughters, both born since her diagnosis.

Mrs Norrington and husband Goff said they were delighted with the news. Mr Norrington said: “We are very pleased indeed.

“Our fight has been for Sheila, but it has been for others too.

“It has taken us two submissions to the ITP, which were rejected, and then you get to the appeal panel and you get a different result.

“We are the first Cetuximab case that the PCT has granted a drug on the NHS under exceptional circumstances. These drugs are available and they should be more readily available for patients – we were fortunate enough to have the fortitude and a little bit of funding behind us to be able to fight it all the way down the line, but some people don’t have that.”

The funding was initially refused because the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) did not recommend Cetuximab for patients, like her, who have been unsuccessfully treated with a particular type of chemotherapy.

Mrs Norrington, who has had 38 cycles of chemotherapy since being diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago, is now preparing for her first treatment with Cetuximab, next Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the Peggy Wood Foundation stepped in to pay for Mrs Norrington’s treatment after hearing she was unable to secure NHS funding. That money will no longer be needed.

Barrie Collins, West Kent PCT’s director of nursing, said: “After reviewing all the evidence, the PCT’s appeal panel gave the go-ahead to funding for Cetuximab for this patient.

“This is because the fact that she has lived for so long with this condition and the outcome of a particular test she had demonstrated that she may be more likely to benefit from this form of chemotherapy than other patients with the same condition.

“We considered her case very carefully as we do every case that comes to the PCT’s Individual Treatment Panel.”