Victim of excruciating back pain Gussie Spence is hopeful of fresh progress in her long fight for justice.

Mrs Spence has greeted efforts by MP Tim Collins to establish a House of Commons all-party group of MPs to look into the cases of people like herself, who believe spinal injections of Myodil dye have caused them years of agony.

Mrs Spence, of Hayclose Road, Kendal, hopes the all-party group will help to secure answers, compensation and even an apology from the drug company that manufactured the sticky chemical, which was discontinued 14 years ago.

Sufferers like Mrs Spence have arachnoiditis, or inflammation of the membranes around the spine.

Myodil was twice injected into her spine when she was being x-rayed during treatment for a back condition 30 years ago, and she believes the dye that clung to her nerves is to blame for the "indescribable" pain which she has endured since.

The agony forced Mrs Spence to give up her much-loved job in telecommunications.

Although she can "get about a little bit" in the house with her two sticks, she is confined to a wheelchair once she leaves the house.

Some days she cannot even move or lift anything.

She is cared for by her devoted husband Brian.

"Initially the best part of my days and weeks and months were spent in bed because I couldn't put feet to the floor because of the pain," said Mrs Spence.

"I can't begin to describe to you what the pain is.

Even now, 30 years later, I still have a concoction of tablets, including morphine, which helps to keep the pain at bay."

Mrs Spence contacted Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Mr Collins about her plight four years ago, and he immediately took up her case, tabling parliamentary questions and bombarding ministers with letters seeking a full public inquiry.

When the requests were denied, Mr Collins called a special debate in the Commons, and argued the case on radio and television, most recently on Radio 4.

Last week the MP met with the Myodil Action Group at the Commons to update them on his efforts to set up an all-party group of MPs to look into the cases of sufferers like Mrs Spence.

"We now only require a few more Government MPs to form an all-party parliamentary group which, I hope, will play a major role in getting the justice sufferers like Gussie Spence deserve," said Mr Collins.

Mrs Spence is hopeful the MPs will decide there is a good case for compensation from the drug company.

She would also like the company to apologise for the damage that she and others believe Myodil inflicted.

Praising the untiring efforts of her MP, Mrs Spence added: "I'm more than grateful to him because he's a busy man but he's not let this go."

A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline told the Gazette that Myodil was discontinued in 1987 as newer techniques and products became available, in particular techniques without the need for injection.

"We have every sympathy for people that think they' ve suffered as a result of the administration of Myodil," he said.

"But it's important to point out that the symptoms and issues surrounding arachnoiditis - which is the problem people have, a very distressing problem - are complex."

The spokesman said that people who were injected with Myodil already had back complaints, and medical opinion indicated that their suffering was "most likely" due to their original condition.

"We did reach a settlement with 425 people in 1995 without any admission of liability," he said.

" In summary, the company believes it's acted responsibly at all times in relation to the supply of Myodil."