Former Hawkwind guitarist, Huw Lloyd Langton, believes that his latest single release, PDT – Photodynamic Therapy, will help change the life-chances for millions of people around the world.

To be released as a download on October 19 by Cherry Red Records, the song, co-written with his wife Marion, is one of the cornerstones of a campaign to fund the global development of a new style of cancer treatment.

“It’s not your usual charity record,” says Lloyd-Langton. “I don’t think there has ever been anything so specific written about cancer, and certainly nothing that can – and will – have such a dramatic impact in changing the way cancer patients are treated in the future.”

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) kills cancers by starving the cells of oxygen, and uses light to activate a chlorophyll-like drug. The song’s lyric tells the story of a man dying of cancer, wanting and knowing that PDT is his best chance of defeating his killer disease.

“Everyone who knows me thinks of my hell-raising days of Hawkwind. I’ve lived life to the full, and Marion and I have survived the ups and downs of the rock music world since we met in 1967. I thought I was invincible until Legionnaires Disease smacked me down, when I was touring with Hawkwind over Christmas 2001.

“I thought I was finished. And friends and family around me were almost dropping like flies from cancer. It wasn’t the cancer that was destroying them, but the treatment. And I couldn’t see any way back.”

The Lloyd-Langtons believe that PDT offers a real alternative. It is a single, one-off cancer treatment where tumours are killed within minutes. It can apparently be repeated without any toxic damage to the body, and with few side-effects.

PDT is available for skin, head and neck, mouth, oesophageal and some lung cancers on the NHS now. But the potential for PDT to successfully treat other cancers and conditions means that £50 million has to be raised to fund the trials.

Currently, there’s also an animation competition running, encouraging computer-animation students in colleges and universities around the UK all to create their own interpretation of the track. The closing date for this is March 1.

Lloyd-Langton is to follow the single with the album Hard Graft next spring and a DVD, which is to include the winning animation entry.

For more information, go here.