A "game changing" drug which was denied to restaurant critic AA Gill on the NHS has been approved for some patients with his type of cancer.

He had died aged 62 last December after revealing he was suffering from the "full English" of cancers - specifically lung cancer that had spread to other parts of his body, including his pancreas.

He received chemotherapy on the NHS but could not access the immunotherapy drug nivolumab because it was not approved on the NHS.

The drug was among those hailed as a "spectacular" new class of drugs, which harness the body's immune system.

In one trial, more than half of patients who had just months to live saw deadly tumours shrink or completely disappear.

In his last column, AA Gill said his doctor told his partner Nicola Formby: "If he had insurance, I'd put him on immunotherapy - specifically, nivolumab. As would every oncologist in the First World. But I can't do it on the National Health."

Gill added: "As yet, immunotherapy isn't a cure, it's a stretch more life, a considerable bit of life. More life with your kids, more life with your friends, more life holding hands, more life shared, more life spent on earth - but only if you can pay."