A petition set up by a Chester family in the hope of saving their son's life still needs more than 20,000 signatures before it can be sent to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt asking for a change in NHS policy.

The Jones family from Mollington have been 'overwhelmed' by the support they've seen since starting their campaign to get the NHS to fund a drug that could save their son’s Matty's life.

Fifteen-year-old Matty has an extremely rare and life-threatening condition called Dense Deposit Disease (DDD) which is slowly eating away at his kidneys.

Conventional therapies like steroids have little effect on Matty’s condition and there is no recommended treatment available for him on the NHS, meaning it is just a matter of time before his kidneys fail and he will be forced to undergo dialysis followed by a kidney transplant.

Related : Read more on Matty's story here

His only hope is a drug called Eculizumab which stops one of the harmful proteins that is currently clogging up Matty’s kidneys, and even tests run by Alder Hey have shown the drug is the best solution for Matty.

Matty Jones' family have arranged a petition to change the NHS policy to allow him a lifesaving drug before it's too late

But because Eculizumab costs around £360,000 a year, and there is no NHS policy for using it to treat DDD, the Jones family have started the petition addressed to Jeremy Hunt, asking for the NHS policy to change to allow funding for the drug they believe will save Matty's life.

Thousands of people have signed it in less than a month and there are now just 22, 101 signatures needed to reach 200,000 - when the petition can be sent to Mr Hunt.

Matty’s dad Nick said told The Chronicle: "We are overwhelmed by the amount of support we have received from the public.

"When we started this petition less than three weeks ago we had no idea how quickly this would take off, but reality has certainly exceeded all our expectations.

"Thank you so much to all who have supported us individually and also our new found friends at the Chronicle, Change.org, LBC, BBC Radio West Midlands and Granada Reports.

"Many thanks also to Chris Matheson MP for writing to Sir Andrew Dillon, the Chief Executive at NICE on Matty’s behalf."

Nick added: "We need to get as many signatures as possible on the petition and do all we can to get a wide support base."

Matty's story will be broadcast on Granada Reports on Wednesday December 2 at 6pm.

You can sign the petitionhere