Health watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) delivered an early Christmas present to those suffering from wet AMD – the UK's leading cause of blindness – after a U-turn in its guidance on sight-saving drugs.

Stringent draft recommendations from the drug rationing body published in June this year proposed denying sight-saving anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) treatments to 80 per cent of patients.

But in a second set of draft recommendations, Nice proposes that anti-VEGF drug Lucentis – previously only available once the patient had gone blind in one eye – should be made available to treat the majority of patients with wet AMD, whether or not it is the first or the second eye that is affected.

Tom Scott, 79, lost the sight in his left eye due to AMD, and he battled with health bosses to agree to fund the course of injections to save his right eye.

In September, he got the call he had been waiting for, and now, three months on, he is enjoying reading his Echo without his glasses.

The former Doxford Engine Works worker, of Neville Road, Pallion, said: "I'm glad it will now be available for lots of other people, it's made such a significant difference to me.

"It was very frustrating knowing the treatment was available but you couldn't get it on the NHS – especially when you've worked all your life. You expect these things to come naturally."

The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) launched a campaign earlier this year to reverse Nice's guidance, saying the preliminary recommendations would condemn 20,000 people, like Tom to blindness each year.

Steve Winyard, RNIB's head of campaigns, said: "Nice has recognised the weight of evidence and the strength of public opinion and performed a major U-turn.

"This is a tremendous victory for the thousands of people who demanded of Nice that they save sight, not money.

"After an overwhelming public outcry, Nice have finally thrown a lifeline to the thousands of patients who are routinely refused the sight-saving treatments they desperately need."

RNIB is now also calling on Nice to make Macugen, another licensed anti-VEGF drug, available in its final guidance.

Final Nice guidance on the drugs is expected in the first half of 2008.