Angelena Buxton, whose funeral takes place on Friday, was an inspiration to cancer patients across Staffordshire and beyond due to her courage and dignity in facing kidney cancer and NHS bureaucracy. Reporter Phil Corrigan has been following her story since she first contacted The Sentinel in April 2007.

ALMOST one year ago, Angelena Buxton stood on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, with a simple request.

She wanted the NHS to offer all kidney cancer patients the same hope that she had experienced, through the wonder drug Nexavar.

While that wish is yet to be fulfilled, it is through no lack of effort from Angelena and her family.

A year earlier, Angelena and husband John were just a normal, hard-working couple, approaching the age where they could start looking forward to a well-deserved retirement.

But then in November 2006, Angelena received the news that would change everything.

She was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and was told the chances were she would not survive another year.

But Angelena and her family were not the sort of people to give up easily, and it was while researching the illness on the internet that younger sister Loretta Marconi-Wrigley first found out about Nexavar.

Survival rates were much higher than with conventional treatments, and it was already licensed for use in this country.

Angelena asked her doctor about the drug but was told her PCT would not fund it. While paying for Nexavar privately would cost £3,200 a month, Angelena and John realised they had no other choice.

They just hoped the PCT would change its mind before their retirement savings ran out, which would force them to sell their home in Sandy Lane, Baldwins Gate.

Angelena and her family started their campaign to make Nexavar available for free on the NHS, launching a petition and sending a formal bid for funding to North Staffordshire PCT.

This bid was rejected in June 2007, but Angelena vowed to appeal, enlisting the help of veteran cancer drug campaigner Dot Griffiths.

Even though she was now suffering from the debilitating side effects of Nexavar, Angelena remained hopeful.

This optimism was vindicated soon afterwards, when scans showed Nexavar was shrinking her kidney tumours.

Armed with this new evidence, Angelena won her appeal against the PCT's decision, meaning the NHS would now pay for the treatment.

But this was not the end of the campaign for Angelena or her family.

While their own battle was won, they would not be happy until all kidney cancer patients in the country could get the drug.

The campaign culminated with Angelena personally delivering a 10,000-name petition to 10 Downing Street, despite the fact she could barely walk unaided.

Sister Gemma Austin, aged 63, of Trentham, said: " We told her that she didn't have to, that we'd go and deliver the petition for her. But she insisted that she would go."

The drug continued to work well, shrinking her kidney tumours to the extent where they could be surgically removed, while the secondary tumours elsewhere in her body were being held at bay.

John, aged 56, said: "After she'd had her operation, things became more normal. We started going out at weekends again and visiting the grandchildren.

"She would never have had that if weren't for Nexavar."

But sadly this happy period would not last. The secondary tumours would return, and three weeks ago, Angelena's condition worsened.

She died in her home last Tuesday, surrounded by her family, as she always wanted.

In August, the National Institute For Health And Clinical Excellence issued draft guidance rejecting Nexavar, and several other kidney cancer drugs, for not being cost-effective.

But Angelena's family hope that her story, and those of other patients who have benefited from Nexavar, will one day lead to a change in this situation. Gemma added: "I don't understand why the Government can spend millions on things like the bank bail-out, but not on things like this, which will save people's lives."