A second woman is taking her fight for the breast cancer drug Herceptin to the High Court.
Elisabeth Cooke, 59, a mother-of-two from Bristol, was diagnosed with the disease in March 2005.
Her specialist recommended Herceptin but North Bristol Primary Care Trust (PCT) refused to supply it, saying her circumstances were not exceptional.
Ann Marie Rogers, who lost her High Court battle in February, will have her appeal heard later this month.
Mrs Cooke, a psychiatric nurse with the NHS since 1984, is applying today for permission to seek judicial review before Mr Justice Black, sitting in London.
Her legal team contends that her case concerns issues not raised in the Rogers case.
North Bristol PCT has been ordered to continue to fund her treatment with Herceptin pending the outcome of her legal challenge while the legal action is ongoing.
Licence application
Mrs Cooke said she felt like she had "won the lottery" after hearing that her treatment was to continue for the time being.
The grandmother paid for her first treatment of the drug with her life savings.
Her application to the High Court is being supported by her union Unison, which says the refusal of treatment amounts to a breach of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention of Human Rights.
Herceptin is currently licensed for use in treating women with advanced breast cancer.
Both Mrs Rogers and Mrs Cooke have an early stage of the disease.
The makers of Herceptin, Roche, applied to the European Medicines Authority last month to obtain a licence for the drug to be given to women at this stage.
Herceptin targets the HER-2 protein, which can fuel the growth of breast tumours. Herceptin prevents this process happening.
Around a fifth of breast cancers are HER-2 positive.
A year's course of Herceptin costs around Ј20,000.
(BBC)
<< Back