"Madchester" band the Happy Mondays, best known for their album Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, are helping to buy a cancer drug for the former Factory Records boss Tony Wilson.

The £3,500 a month treatment will keep Mr Wilson's kidney cancer at bay after the NHS refused to fund his treatment. He was diagnosed with cancer last year, and has had a kidney removed.

His doctors at the Christie hospital, in Manchester, recommended that he should be treated with Sutent, a drug that has doubled the life expectancy of some patients in trials.

However, the Manchester NHS Primary Care Trust has refused to pay for the treatment, saying there was not enough demonstrable evidence to support the use of Sutent in treating kidney cancer.

Mr Wilson said he was now buying the drug privately, with the bill being paid by friends and a fund set up by members of the Happy Mondays and other bands he has supported over the years.

"This is my only real option," the former ex-record label boss, who helped shape Manchester's most famous bands during the 80s and 90s, said.

"It is not a cure but I can hold the cancer back, so I will probably be on it until I die. When they said I would have to pay £3,500 for the drugs each month, I thought 'where am I going to get the money'?

"I'm the only person in this industry who famously has never made any money. I used to say some people make money and some make history, which is very funny until you find you can't afford to keep yourself alive."

Mr Wilson said his friends had been very generous and he was lucky to have the fund, "but some people needing these drugs are cashing in their life savings, some are selling their homes".

Nathan McGough, the former manager of the Mondays, teamed up with Elliot Rashman, the band's current manager, to set up the fund after they heard about Mr Wilson's plight.

They have collected enough cash to pay for his treatment for the next five months.

"Tony is such a highly respected figure in the entertainment industry ... with the permission of his family I was able to contact a few businesses and individuals who were wealthy and would not miss the money, and we have built up a substantial fund," he said.

"Everyone I asked was very quick to offer to help - it was all done quietly and guaranteed that only Tony and I would know they had helped. They don't want thanks or recognition, they just wanted to help."

Mr Wilson added that his condition had improved and he believed Sutent was stopping his cancer from spreading.

The drug was licensed in January, but it could be 18 months before it is assessed for use across the health service. Until then, it is up to each individual health trust to decide whether to fund it, creating a postcode lottery.