Jubilant Thelma Nixon was "walking on air" today after winning NHS funding to save her sight.

The pensioner from Strensall said she was "stunned" when she was told that the York and North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust was willing to pay for Lucentis injections into her left eye.

Thelma, 70, said: "I am extremely grateful for The Press for highlighting my case and bringing it to the attention to the public and the Trust, which has now changed its policy.

"I am eternally thankful for this. It's a victory. I have finally been able to get some sleep at night because I've been terrified about going blind."

The Press reported earlier this summer how Thelma has had to remortgage her home to pay for private treatment for her eyes, because of the condition wet macular degeneration.

After the paper reported that her money was running out, a generous reader came forward and offered to fund it himself, and she has since had two private injections funded by the retired businessman from Acaster Malbis.

Another reader, a York woman, then offered to pay for an injection, and incredibly, a third generous reader, another York woman, has now offered to pay for one as well.

Thelma said she understood that the decision to fund the treatment to her left eye has been taken following the announcement of new guidelines by the trust last month. She understood that other patients in North Yorkshire were also going to receive similar good news.

The trust said then that the guidelines were more generous than draft guidelines recently issued by NICE, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Thelma said: "When I got the call to tell me the news I was stunned. I am walking on air. I said can you say that again' to the consultant's secretary and then asked her to tell my friend who was with me. My friend heard the news and said "Yippee". She said she had informed the Royal National Institute for the Blind, which had been campaigning on her behalf, and an officer there had been "absolutely over the moon".

But she said he had warned her to beware of having more private treatment to the right eye in case it jeopardised NHS funding.

Thelma said she was very grateful for the three offers of help from The Press readers.

"It restores your faith in humanity".

She said she was "very relieved" by the trust decision, which should safeguard the treatment for her left eye as long as it is needed.

She revealed that she had recently gone to Marks & Spencer to buy Christmas presents, fearing that she would be blind and unable to choose them by the time Christmas came around.

In a statement, Dr David Geddes, medical director for North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust, said:

"In order to ensure a fair and equitable approach to the treatment of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) the PCT have reviewed the criteria used to determine eligibility for NHS funding for this treatment, including the use of drug therapies for wet AMD, and have adopted the interim policy agreed by the Yorkshire and Humber Specialist Commissioning Group on June 15, 2007.

"From June 15, 2007 any patients who had been referred for anti VEGF treatment should be assessed against the new criteria and informed if they would now be eligible for NHS funding. In addition to this, consultants who feel that patients with wet AMD, who were assessed against the previous policy but may now benefit from the change in criteria, can refer that patient to the PCT for consideration against it."