VICTORY AT LAST AS BRAVE ABI, 14, FINALLY GETS I’m not just happy for myself, but for all the others this drug will help and I thank readers for never giving up on me

BRAVE schoolgirl Abi Longfellow wept with joy this week as she was finally granted the wonder drug that will save her life.

The Sunday People has campaigned for nearly two years on kidney patient Abi’s behalf after health chiefs ruled £137,000 a year eculizumab was too expensive.

But on Friday, NHS England finally rubber- stamped a new policy for 14-year-old Abi and agreed to fund the drug – meaning she could have a transplant within weeks.

And the victory – brought on after the Sunday People enlisted a top lawyer to fight her case – means hundreds of other patients in her predicament will also be awarded the treatment.

Mum Jo, 46, cried as she held her daughter and told her: “We’ve done it. You’re going to be OK.”

Abi said: “I’m happy but not just for myself, for all of the other people this drug will help and I want to say thank you to the readers of the Sunday People for never giving up on me.

“Finally I have a chance of growing up and having a future.

“It’s been so hard for so long but I’m really looking forward my life now.

“I promise I will look after my new kidney and make the most of every moment.”

But the typical teen wants to start with the little things.

Sparkle

Abi can’t wait to tuck into a jacket potato with cheese and beans and a chocolate cake after being banned from eating most of her favourite foods because of her dangerous condition.

She has been on dialysis for 12 hours a day since she was diagnosed four years ago with dense deposit disease – a rare autoimmune condition which stops the kidneys from functioning.

Without eculizumab, doctors didn’t expect her to reach her 18th birthday.

She is on a highly restricted diet because the potassium content in most foods could trigger a cardiac arrest.

She said: “The first thing I want to do when I get my transplant is have a jacket potato with cheese and beans and some chocolate cake.

“I’m also really looking forward to have a long soak in the bath. At the moment I can’t even do that because there is such a high risk of infection.

“I’d love to be able to go to the cinema with my friends but I’m usually just too tired so it will be great to be able to do that too.”

Jo added: “She’s got her sparkle back, although part of her doesn’t dare dream this is happening.

“Finally it feels like she has a future to look forward to. We couldn’t have done it without the Sunday People.”

Charity worker Jo and her mechanic husband Andy, 47, saw their world collapse when doctors diagnosed Abi with the condition after she was floored by a series of throat infections.

Jo recalled: “She was in hospital having tests and I remember being so relieved when the consultant told me she didn’t have cancer. But then I saw she had tears in her eyes as she said, ‘It’s bad news.’”

In a cruel twist of fate, the Longfellows, from Wakefield, West Yorks, learned the drugs that could save Abi were locked in a cabinet just yards from her bed in Leeds General Infirmary. But doctors were banned from prescribing the medicine because it wasn’t on a list of drugs funded by the NHS. When we first told of Abi’s fate, Sunday People readers got behind the desperate family in their droves and a petition to have the drug licensed attracted over 200,000 signatures. The brave teenager, who hasn’t been to school for nearly four years because she she’ss so sick, even wro wrote to then-Prime Minister David Came Cameron to beg him to fund the drug. He responded to our campaign, ordering a health debate in the House of Comm Commons and a rapid case review by N Nice. But disappo disappointment after disappointment followed. Last February officials finally ruled th that Abi met the criteri criteria for the drug. Bu But cash-strapped hea health chiefs said the they still couldn’t aff afford it because of ris rising drug prices d due to Brexit. Jo said: “There have been some really dark times. One of the worst was when Abi asked me if she was going to die.

“I wanted to be honest with her but I also didn’t want to scare her so all I could say was that the doctors were doing their best to make her better.

“I’d have changed places with her in an instant if I could – any mum would.

“We’ve had no choice but to be strong. You don’t realise how much strength you have until there is no other option.

Better

“And throughout everything Abi has never given up hope. She’s always had faith we’ll get the medicine which will make her better.”

In desperation, the family even decided to try to get her a transplant with no guarantee of the drug – on the tiny chance dense deposit disease would not attack the new organ.

But they faced further heartache last May when Andy, who had signed up to donate a kidney to his daughter, was told Abi’s body would likely reject it.

Doctors said the op could cause him to go into renal failure too. He said: “It