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A life-saving cancer organisation has received financial backing of £250,000 from global property investor, the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust (PNFT), helping extend the lives of more than 135 cancer sufferers.

The north-west based Pamela Northcott Fund has fought for patients’ rights to cancer drugs deemed too expensive to offer on the NHS or for treatments since 2007. However, the voluntary organisation is now expecting a surge in enquiries following an announcement that a £200m NHS cancer fund set up in England in 2010 is being wound up next spring.

In addition to the £250,000 already donated, the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust has pledged a further £60,000 a year to fund the administration costs ensuring that every penny raised is used to help patients.

The fund was set up six years ago by Chester-based campaigner Kate Spall after her mother Pamela was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer. Despite being advised the cancer was untreatable, Kate’s own research showed two clinically effective treatments commonly available throughout the western world but not offered by the NHS because of the high cost.

Undetermined Kate launched a campaign to ensure her mother and other cancer patients were given access to treatments. In May 2007 Kate’s mother became the first person in Wales to be offered the lifesaving Nexavar cancer treatment with a further 150 patients subsequently offered the same treatment.

Tragically this came too late for her mother who passed away three months later but despite her loss, Kate was determined that other families would not be put through the same heartbreak.

Kate Spall, said: “NHS funding for rarer cancer treatments is harder to access due to cost and lack of evidence of the efficacy of the drug. However, by funding the treatment for up to three months and working with oncologists to prove the clinical effectiveness the patients is then well on the way to securing NHS funding.

“The financial backing from the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust will provide a lifeline to hundreds of cancer sufferers.”

The fund also lobbies the NHS and health ministers on behalf of cancer sufferers across the UK for wider access to treatments. One of the biggest successes came in 2009 when founder Kate Spall successfully campaigned for a lifesaving kidney cancer drug to be made available to 2,000 patients a year for the first time on the NHS.

The charity is now looking to raise up to £200,000 per year with a guarantee that every penny raised will go towards funding a cancer patient, who has been denied treatment.

Rudi Falla, spokesperson for the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust which owns a number of companies including property developer LPC Living, said: “Cancer touches everyone’s live at some point hence our commitment to donating £250,000 to give cancer patients a second chance at life.”

To find out more about the Pamela Northcott Fund or make a donation visit their website.