AN epilepsy sufferer is suing the manufacturers of a drug over the damage she says it has caused to her eyesight.

Thirty-eight-year-old Elaine Swaddling, from Malvern, is among a group of people to join a test case action heading for London's High Court against drug manufacturers Aventis Pharma.

The group - which also includes a Hereford woman, Clara Newman - fear they have been harmed by the company's anti-epileptic drug Vigabatrim - also known as Sabril.

In writs issued at London's High Court by Plymouth-based solicitors Wolferstans, they claim the brand is defective and accuse the manufacturers of negligence and breach of contract.

Ms Swaddling - who is currently out of work - claims the drug caused her to lose a banana-shaped area of vision in her left eye.

Brain tumour

She has been on anti-epileptic drugs since the age of 18 and was taking Vigabatrim for about two years between 1990 and 1992 - but stopped because she said it was not working.

However, Ms Swaddling - who has been blind in her right eye since the age of 16 because of a brain tumour - subsequently noticed her vision was gradually deteriorating.

And when she went for a field vision test at Worcestershire Royal Hospital she was told a section of her vision was missing.

Now she says she is unable to pursue hobbies such as needlework - and she has been told she could go blind.

"I feel annoyed," she told the Evening News yesterday. "I don't want people to suffer from the same effects that I've been suffering. I want to see the drug taken off the market."

A study in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry claims the drug - first launched in 1989 - is an effective way to treat epilepsy.

However, it indicates it can lead to visual field defects and abnormalities in around 40 per cent of those who take it.

Ms Swaddling is still on a daily cocktail of alternative drugs for her epilepsy.

An Aventis Pharma spokesman said they could not comment on individual cases but were vigorously defending all claims.

"Sabril is an effective treatment for epilepsy, particularly in resistant cases where other medicines are ineffective.

"As such, it enables severe epilepsy sufferers to have a quality of life that would not otherwise be possible."