Jayne Sullivan says she needs the drug as a "desperate preventative"

Jayne Sullivan will start her Cardiff Bay demonstration on Wednesday, the day after she learns whether her oncologist will apply for the drug to treat her.

She was offered hope after a Cardiff Local Health Board (LHB) member said it was highly likely to approve the drug.

The Welsh Assembly Government said commissioning the drug was up to LHBs.

"I will carry on until this bureaucracy ends and this highly successful drug is available to women like me," said Ms Sullivan, who has a teenage son and daughter.

She has the backing of Barbara Clark, a 49-year-old from Somerset who took her fight to obtain the anti-cancer drug to the European Court of Human Rights, and who is now in remission from the disease.

I want every woman in Wales to be offered Herceptin when the medical treatment decrees the are going to benefit from it Jayne Sullivan

Researchers in the US have recently discovered the risk of tumours recurring with certain types of breast cancer can be cut by up to 50% if Herceptin is taken in the early stages of the disease.

At present in the UK, the drug is only routinely prescribed on the NHS to women with advanced breast cancer.

Ms Sullivan was diagnosed in May 2005 and has HER 2 grade three positive tumours.

Mrs Clark plans to join her in the assembly protest and has also offered to pay for her first infusion of Herceptin at a cost of about �2,500.

"I have the same type of cancer as Barbara Clark but mine has not spread to the lymph glands," said Ms Sullivan.

"In some ways its more important for me to get the drug - as a desperate preventative," said Ms Sullivan.

She has joined a growing number of women across the UK who are arguing for the treatment - which costs up to �30,000 for a year - to be made available on the NHS.

'Other local priorities'

It is reported that her local health board in Cardiff has agreed that patients who meet the criteria for Herceptin should be given the drug before it is officially licensed in the UK in March

A Cardiff Local Health Board spokeswoman told the Western Mail: "They (the patients who need Herceptin) could receive it in the meantime. The decision for the longer term will be take in March".

LHBs would also need to consider the risks involved in prescribing a drug outside of its product licence Welsh Assembly Government

Gareth Neale, the chairman of the Cardiff LHB committee which makes recommendations on prescribing such drugs told the BBC Wales News website: "In all the surrounding circumstances, it would be highly likely that the LHB would authorise it."

But Ms Sullivan said her fight for the drug to be made available across Wales would continue whether she is successful in getting the drug or not.

"I want every woman in Wales to be offered Herceptin when the medical treatment decrees they are going to benefit from it."

"I have plenty of friends who will support me in this and the only reason I will leave is to go for my infusion (of Herceptin)".

An assembly government spokeswoman said: "There is nothing to prevent LHBs in Wales from commissioning Herceptin.

"It would, however, need to be weighed against other local priorities at this early stage before full evaluation.

"LHBs would also need to consider the risks involved in prescribing a drug outside of its product licence.

"It will be a number of months before this drug is licensed for safe use in Wales and England and NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) has published its guidance.

"In the meantime, guidance which will be issued shortly to the NHS to help prepare for implementing Trastuzumab (Herceptin) should it be licensed and positively appraised by NICE."