'We will not stop' warns mother who tried to bring cannabis into UK to treat epileptic son
Video report byITV News Correspondent Allegra Stratton
A British mother has vowed to return to Canada to get more cannabis oil used to treat her son's severe epilepsy after having a supply confiscated at Heathrow airport.
Charlotte Caldwell made the trip to Toronto and back with 12-year-old Billy to get a six-month supply, but said border officials took away the oil on Monday.
Ms Caldwell, from Castlederg in Co Tyrone, accused Home Office Minister Nick Hurd of having “likely signed my son’s death warrant” before heading to a London meeting with him.
“It’s Billy’s anti-epileptic medication that Nick Hurd has taken away, it’s not some sort of joint full of recreational cannabis,” she told a press conference.
Billy can suffer as many as 100 seizures per day, but his condition has been shown to have improved dramatically once he began taking the medicine.
He made history by becoming the first person in the UK to be prescribed medical marijuana on the NHS, but his supply of medicine has since run out.His local GP, Brendan O’Hare, began writing scripts, but the doctor was summoned to a meeting with Home Office officials recently and told to desist.
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