A FORMER nurse who was virtually blind in both eyes has praised a "wonder-drug" which she says has saved her sight.

Pauline Edwards is one of only a handful of patients across the country to be given Avastin, a drug which is licensed to treat bowel and breast cancer.

It has also been proved to treat age-related macular degeneration - the most common form of blindness in older people.

But the drug is not yet licensed for that pupose.

Mrs Edwards, aged 51, first developed symptoms of AMD three years ago, when the vision in her left eye dramatically deteriorated overnight.

AMD caused the blood vessels behind the eye to bleed and even though she immediately gave up smoking - a habit that can help lead to the condition - she lost almost all of the vision in that eye.

In May this year, she woke one morning to discover the sight in her right eye was also deteriorating.

Mrs Edwards, who worked as a senior sister at Hope Hospital in Salford for 30 years, said: "My world just fell apart when I realised I was going blind in both eyes. It was bad enough when it was just one eye."

But after visiting her consultant, Dr Simon Kelly, at the Royal Bolton Hospital, the mum-of-one, who was forced to give up work because of her eyesight, has been thrown a lifeline and was treated with an Avastin injection three months after the problems first began in her second eye.

Since then, the sight in her right eye has returned completely.

Mrs Edwards, of Salford, cannot thank the specialists at the Royal Bolton Hospital enough.

She said: "It's been like a curtain lifting. I can even read Teletext now. Without this injection I would have lost most of my central vision.

"If I couldn't have had this treatment, the way my life would have been just doesn't bear thinking about."

Despite the drug not yet being licensed to treat AMD, Bolton Primary Care Trust, which funds the treatment, has agreed to examine each patient's case and, if it is felt it is needed, will pay for it.

Health bosses are also working on a business plan so Avastin can be funded and provided locally.

Dr Simon Kelly, consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal Bolton , said: "It's very early days because the treatment has only just begun in Bolton, but it's very exciting."