Anne MacLean-Chang is one of the women who campaigned for Kadcyla to be made available on the NHS in Scotland after having to battle health boards to receive the drug once her cancer spread and doctors warned against more chemotherapy.

The 47-year-old, from Larbert, said: "Kadcyla is one of two drugs available for us to try and provide us with the best quality and quantity of life.

"I'm really pleased by the decision. I'm pleased for myself, selfishly, that I don't have to worry that my funding would be pulled in due course and for other ladies that have been diagnosed with metastatic HER2-positive disease or who are going to be diagnosed in the future.

"At the moment a couple of ladies every week in Scotland go on to develop metastatic HER2-positive disease, so they stand to benefit from this drug."

Fellow campaigner Alison Tait, 47, from Edinburgh, said the decision means she is "able to talk more confidently about the future" for her and her daughter Ellen, 16, knowing the drug will be available if she needs it.

She said: "I'm delighted and excited, it's a fantastic decision today and am really looking forward to sharing it with my daughter and family.

"There's a lot of milestones coming up in Ellen's life and I was really frightened I wasn't going to be around for those and she's not quite old enough to stand on her own two feet yet, so getting her more independent, I feel that's something that's within my grasp now.

"It gives me another option, I'm relieved that there is something else for me if what I'm on at the moment doesn't work. It lengthens my life and gives you a good quality of life as well.

"Chemotherapy is dreadful in terms of the quality of life, so knowing there's a drug out there that enables you to carry on at work, take holidays and do the day-to-day stuff for your children - it's not about the big memories it's about every day.

"There's a little bit of sadness because there's potentially been women with this decision that would be here now, so I feel that for them, but at the same time there's a lot of women who are here now that will benefit and that's an amazing result for women in Scotland."