The potentially life-saving breast cancer drug herceptin must be given to early stage cancer patients, the Government health watchdog has ruled.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued final guidance to Primary Care Trusts which recommends herceptin is given to all women with HER2 type breast cancer.

Two Sussex women who fought their respective Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) for the drug, and won, have told how it has helped them and their relief that other women will not have to face the battle they did.

Mother-of-seven Sarah Steele, 43, from Worthing and university librarian Lesley Tipler, 53, from Polegate spoke out in December last year about their personal battles with the health authority to be prescribed herceptin.

Both women were diagnosed with the HER2 strain of breast cancer, which is said to respond well to herceptin, potentially increasing a patient's chance of survival by more than 50 per cent.

The drug costs £30,000 a course and Primary Care Trusts have argued they are unable to afford the drugs for women with this form of early stage breast cancer.

The HER2 strain is a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer which affects 20 to 25 per cent of breast cancer sufferers, about 8,000 women nationwide.

Following a reassessment by all 15 PCTs in the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority area and the two cancer networks covering both counties, Mrs Steele and Mrs Tipler were prescribed herceptin earlier this year. Both women say the drug has saved their lives.

Mrs Steele has been taking herceptin for four months.

Her cancer is in remission and shows no sign of returning.

She will take the drug for another year, which should drastically reduce the chances of her cancer coming back.

Mrs Steele said she was delighted with the final ruling.

She said: "It is fantastic news for other women. They have dragged it out for so long. It was licenced a while ago now, and this whole process has just gone on and on. I am just relieved it is finally all sorted but it should have been done much sooner."

Mrs Steele said having to fight to get herceptin herself was awful.

She said: "I would not wish that on anyone. You are so exhausted after your chemotherapy and then you hear this, that you need this drug and you may not be able to have it."

Mrs Tipler was diagnosed with cancer in February 2005, after noticing a lump on her breast. She also had aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy immediately after being diagnosed but her consultant said her best chance of survival was to take herceptin. She was eventually prescribed the drug in February.

She has to take it for a further six months but at the moment her cancer is in remission and shows no sign of returning.

She said: "It has saved my life, it has allowed me to see my children grow up."

She welcomed the final ruling from NICE.

Mrs Tipler said: "It is crazy that they would prescribe it in some parts of the country and not in others. We all pay the same taxes." She added the argument that it was too expensive did not stand up.

She said: "In his letter to the PCT my consultant actually argued it was more effective for me to have the drug now than if I developed terminal cancer as you have to take it for longer at that stage."

Mrs Tipler's son, who was just 16 when she was diagnosed, has just received his A level results and starts university in September.

She added: "It is things like that I might never have seen."