PENSIONER Thelma Nixon has undergone another eye injection - funded by a generous Press reader - in her continuing battle to save her sight.

The treatment was carried out yesterday, as the 70-year-old from Strensall, near York, revealed she had appealed to primary care trust bosses against their decision not to fund the injections.

Her appeal has won backing from the Royal National Institute For The Blind (RNIB), which claims she is an exceptional case fully deserving NHS funding.

Thelma, who suffers from the condition wet macular degeneration (AMD), had her ninth injection with the drug Lucentis yesterday afternoon.

The Press reported last month how she had paid for the first seven by remortgaging her home to raise more than £10,000, but her money had run out.

A retired businessman from Acaster Malbis then got in touch to offer to meet the £3,000 cost of two more injections, the second of which was given yesterday.

After The Press reported she would be unable to pay the bill for the next injection, due in August, another generous reader, a York woman, contacted the paper to say she would fund it.

But Thelma still looks set to be without funding from September, and hopes North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) will have a change of heart over its refusal to provide funding.

Appealing against the decision to PCT chief executive Janet Soo-Chung, she said she had the condition in both eyes, and many PCTs regarded that as the main criteria for funding.

She said: "Does your PCT really feel that someone with this in both eyes is not a high priority as an exceptional case?

"Please will you ask your appeal panel to look favourably at my appeal. I am only asking for what I feel I am entitled to. Without your support I will go blind, which I find a horribly frightening prospect."

Andrew Baines, who runs Action For AMD Treatment, a patient advocacy service set up jointly by the RNIB and the Macular Disease Society, wrote to the chief executive to say the fact that Mrs Nixon had wet AMD in both eyes immediately made her an exceptional case.

"I would suggest that there is a strong argument for regarding her case as a form of joint venture' - she has done all she can, now she is turning to you for the financial help she so urgently needs to complete her treatment."

A PCT spokeswoman said it had received Thelma's letter, and she would be receiving a response from the chief executive.