CHRISTMAS has come early for a five-year-old girl suffering painful arthritis with the news she has been funded for expensive new treatment.

Victoria Price, of Baldwin Road, Kidderminster, touched the hearts of thousands of Shuttle/Times and News readers when we featured her battle with painful chronic juvenile arthritis. Victoria Price who will receive treatment to combat her painful arthritis.

But now her family hopes she will combat her condition after Worcestershire Health Authority agreed to stump up £8,500 a year for treatment with new drug Enbrel - designed to prevent the disease eating away at her joints.

Her mother Julie said: "We are absolutely thrilled and delighted at the news. Hopefully, it will mean Victoria will be able to lead a normal life.

"We hope her treatment can start in the New Year. The sooner it starts, the sooner it will work and the better for Victoria.

"Birmingham Children's Hospital said she was a very deserving case so we must thank them for pressing Victoria's position, and of course the health authority for funding her treatment."

Victoria featured in the Shuttle/Times and News last month over her prime time slot on BBC's Children In Need.

The bubbly girl, who attends Blakedown First School, featured with chart-toppers S Club 7 on the hit show.

At the time Mrs Price hoped the TV appearance would raise awareness of the condition, which affects every joint in Victoria's body. But she is staggered at receiving funding so soon.

Mrs Price was prepared for a long battle having been told it costs £8,000 a year to treat an adult with the drug and to prescribe it for all sufferers would cost more than the entire NHS budget.

She said: "I wouldn't say Victoria is looking forward to the treatment because it means she has to have two injections a week instead of one!

"But it is such a massive step forward and hopefully it will mean she will no longer need five lots of medicine.

"It is the best Christmas present we could have wished for."

Worcestershire Health Authority's pharmaceutical adviser Dr Duncan Jenkins said trials showed the treatment could be beneficial to patients where others had failed but it was still early days.

He said: "We are currently taking a cautious approach and are making decisions on a case-by-case basis.

"This is because they are expensive and we do not know a great deal about their long-term side effects.

"The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is due to provide guidance on these treatments in March 2002."