Mum praises medical cannabis after son who had 1,000 fits a month now seizure free
A mum has praised medicinal cannabis now that her son, who used to endure 500 life-threatening fits a month, is seizure-free.
Hannah Deacon, who's from Kenilworth, told ITV News Central the cannabis – which was legalised for medicinal use on in November 2018 – has made a huge difference to the 11-year-old’s life.
Her son Alfie Dingley, who suffers from severe epilepsy, is one of just three people in the UK to have been handed an NHS prescription for the drug.
Alfie's mum Hannah tells ITV News that many families are desperate to get access to medical cannabis.
Alfie made history in June 2018 when the Home Office gave his doctor the first licence to prescribe medicinal cannabis.
However, thousands of people are still unable to access funded prescriptions, with families forced to spend thousands of pounds a month to go private, or buy the drug illegally.
Parents and children marched from Evalina Children's Hospital to parliament on Tuesday to demand it is made available to more people.
Hannah, 43, who co-founded MedCan Support for families looking to access the drug, said this stance has created what she described as "a block" on NHS prescriptions.
She says that since the law changed, less than 5 prescriptions have been funded on the NHS and that some families are resorting to using illegal cannabis as doctors will not prescribe it.
Consultant neurologist and medicinal cannabis expert Professor Mike Barnes said some members of the medical profession are reluctant to embrace cannabis as medicine.
He said: "There's now overwhelming evidence that, not for everybody, but for some people it's a really helpful medicine.
"Particularly for when you get to the end of the road with epilepsy and nothing else works, why not try cannabis because it's safe and for many children it's a remarkable turnaround in their condition."
A statement from the Department for Health and Social Care said: “In 2018, we changed the law to allow specialist doctors to prescribe cannabis-based products, where clinically appropriate, and making it easier to conduct research on these products.
“Licensed cannabis-based medicines are routinely funded by the NHS where there is clear evidence of their quality, safety and effectiveness.
“We are taking an evidence-based approach to unlicensed cannabis based treatments to ensure they are proved safe and effective before they can be considered for roll out on the NHS more widely.”
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