A cancer patient who was denied a stem cell transplant has been told her treatment can go ahead after a petition calling on the NHS to reverse its decision reached 10,000 signatures in less than a week.

Sandra Redshaw, 51, from Hartley, was one of the patients to have been denied a stem cell transplant as the NHS considers how to pay for a new HIV drug.

She said: “The petition topping 10,000 was a very heartwarming and emotional moment, and I burst into tears as it ticked over to that magic number.” University College Hospital in London has now told her the transplant will go ahead even though the question of funding still remains to be sorted.

It comes after figures released this week showed a “postcode lottery” in cancer treatment across the country. Dartford and Gravesham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was among a number rated as “needing improvement”.

Mrs Redshaw was told her treatment had been put on hold two weeks before it was due to start after the High Court ruled the NHS should consider funding the preventative PrEP HIV drug which will cost an estimated £20 million. The petition was set up on Tuesday last week and more than 10,000 people had signed it by Friday.

Sandra said: “It’s fantastic and the support we’ve had to get there has been amazing, very emotional and totally overwhelming.”

Sandra’s condition, a type of lymphoma called Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia, affects about 4,000 people in the UK. The mother-of-three was diagnosed as having the rare form of blood cancer 15 years ago while she was pregnant with her middle child. The treatment costs about £25,000 and involves her being given high doses of chemotherapy in preparation for the transplant.

Any delay longer than six months would have meant she would have had to go through the chemotherapy again. She said: “There isn’t anyone I have spoken to who didn’t think this was totally wrong.”

Although Sandra will receive the transplant she needs, she said the issue of funding other treatments still existed and she would do what she could to help other patients.