Hundreds of Hounslow pensioners will benefit from sight-saving drugs after a long-awaited ruling.

Nearly 100 patients across the borough develop wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) every year, a condition that can lead to blindness in as little as three months if left untreated.

The UK's leading cause of blindness can be treated with Lucentis and Macugen, but the cost of the drugs - more than s10,000 per eye - meant thousands of elderly residents across the country threatened with blindness were effectively facing a postcode lottery as different primary care trusts decided whether to fund the treatment.

That all changed on Tuesday, when the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) ruled trusts everywhere must pay for the drugs.

Hounslow PCT has funded the treatment since NICE recommended its use in draft guidance published last December and a spokeswoman said it would comply fully with the new ruling, estimating there are 95 new cases of wet AMD a year across Hounslow.

Toni Warchola, Hounslow support services coordinator at Middlesex Association for the Blind, said new cases of the disease were being reported every week.

"This ruling's very good news because it (wet AMD) seems to be on the rise," she said. "It's one of the worst eye conditions I've come across because losing their sight so late in life can make people very isolated and frightened."

NICE has been appraising the use of Lucentis and Macugen since February 2006 and about half the PCTs across the country were already funding the drugs.