Cancer patients and doctors in the North East have welcomed a decision to make a revolutionary drug available to leukaemia sufferers.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) says Glivec should be made available to all chronic sufferers of myeloid leukaemia.

The plight of sufferers was highlighted by Ann Tittley, from Newton Aycliffe near Darlington, who was refused the �18,000 a year treatment.

But after the 55-year-old wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair - her constituency MP - Bishop Auckland general hospital relented and said she could be given the drug.

Glivec underwent clinical trials in Newcastle

Tests on the drug have been underway at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary since 1999.

Mrs Tittley said she was "very pleased" at the decision.

Glivec is currently available in Scotland, parts of Europe and the United States, but Mrs Tittley was told it could not be prescribed on the NHS in England.

She was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in November 2001.

Clinical trials at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle showed Glivec could successfully treat the disease.

Dr Steve O'Brien, from the RVI's department of haematology, said the drug should now be given to all sufferers of chronic leukaemia as soon as possible.

He said: "There are not many drugs used in medicine that have had similar rates of success as Glivec has with myleoid leukaemia."

Elizabeth Rees, co-founder of the chronic myeloid leukaemia support group, said: "People like Ann Tittley have really helped to hightlight the situation of sufferers."

A spokesman for NICE said tests showed that in 85% of cases the spread of leukaemia was stemmed when the used the new drug.