THE Prime Minster has led tributes to Oxfordshire cancer drugs campaigner Clive Stone, who has died aged 68.

David Cameron described Mr Stone as "an inspiration" after his family confirmed he passed away peacefully at his Eynsham home on Thursday morning.

A champion of patients' rights, the grandfather-of-two played a key role in setting up the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund and battled 39 brain tumours himself after being diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007.

The drugs fund – launched in 2010 – has enabled some 80,000 patients to access treatments not otherwise available through the NHS.

Speaking yesterday, Witney MP Mr Cameron said: "Clive Stone was an inspiration to me and I am so sorry to learn of his passing.

"He was an amazing man who made such a difference to so many people’s lives.

"He will be much missed and I will remember him very fondly."

A former Oxford Mail columnist and ex-bank manager, Mr Stone's achievements included fighting successfully to make the life-extending kidney cancer drug Sunitinib available on the NHS in 2009.

And the following year he persuaded Mr Cameron – his constituency MP – to allocate £200m to an emergency drug fund for cancer patients.

He was also the founder of the campaign group Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients, formed in 2008.

Mr Stone lost his 61-year-old wife, Jan, to breast cancer in 2011. She was diagnosed in 2009, two years after her husband was found to have the disease.

Details of Mr Stone's funeral have not yet been confirmed, his family said.