A nurse with breast cancer yesterday won the first round in her battle to persuade her primary care trust, Bristol North, to fund her treatment with the cancer-fighting drug herceptin.

A high court judge, Mr Justice Silber, ordered the trust to pay for the treatment pending the outcome of Elisabeth Cooke's challenge to the trust's refusal to provide the drug free of charge.

Mrs Cooke, 59, from Bristol, whose case is backed by her trade union, Unison, was diagnosed with breast cancer last March, and has been using her life savings to pay for the drug, which was recommended by her oncologist.