Cancer patient Andy Crabb is looking forward to a brighter future tonight after his third appeal to be given the life-extending drug Sunitinib on the NHS was successful.

Mr Crabb, 50, is among 25 county kidney cancer sufferers denied funding for the drug by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust as it is deemed too expensive.

In May, he began a 28-day free trial of Sunitinib, but after that he and his wife Dianne were forced to pay £3,300 every six weeks to buy the tablets.

The father-of-three from Crosslands Drive, Abingdon, received an email on Wednesday night from his consultant informing him his appeal to the PCT had been successful.

He and his family gathered at Abingdon United Football Club in Northcourt Road to celebrate the decision.

The grandfather-of-nine said: “I was watching the Manchester United game and checked the emails at half-time and was amazed to see the decision had come through.

“I had to have a quiet sit-down and found it very difficult to concentrate on the second half. I want to thank Kate Spall who campaigned on my behalf — she has been amazing.

“I have tried to deal with this by staying positive and I’ve had lots of support from family and friends and people in the community who rallied round and raised funds.

“Now I have been granted funding I’m looking forward to the time when I will be in remission from cancer — that’s what I’m aiming towards.”

Cancer drug campaigner Ms Spall, who has won 80 appeals for patients in the UK, said: “The fundraising efforts of the community meant Andy was able to pay for the drug himself after he was turned down by the PCT and it clearly worked for him.

“I think that was important when his appeal was being considered.

“On this third occasion, I was able to argue successfully that Andy’s case was exceptional because his cancerous kidney has not been removed yet and he had not been given the drug Interferon.

“I still hope the operation will go ahead because that will give him the best chance of survival. Andy was strong enough to rally people behind him, but unfortunately some patients don’t feel strong enough to fight.”

The funding is dependent on a scan at the end of the month showing Mr Crabb is benefiting from Sunitinib.

Mr Crabb’s sister, Nicola Beauchamp, from Radley, said: “Everyone has rallied round — Andy thought he was going to have to sell his house and then we would have had to sell ours.”

Mrs Beauchamp said a fundraising race night at Abingdon United Football Club would still go ahead at the club on November 15.

Clive Stone, a spokesman for Oxfordshire-based Friends of Renal Oncology Group (Frog), which represents 40 patients, said: “This is brilliant news.”

Sarah Adair, a spokesman for the PCT, said: “The decision was reached in light of new clinical information submitted by Mr Crabb’s consultant.

“The PCT cannot discuss the clinical details of individual patients.”