Somerset couple pays nearly £1k a month for cannabis medicine to treat daughter's epilepsy

  • Watch: Adam Grierson's report

A couple from Somerset say they are having to pay almost £1,000 a month for a cannabis-based medicine to treat their two-year-old daughter's severe epilepsy.

This is, they say, despite years of campaigning for better access to the medication through the NHS.

Three years ago, a change in the law allowed doctors in the UK to prescribe medicinal cannabis.

Those eligible to receive the treatment range from adults suffering from MS to children with severe epilepsy.

Emily Howis says her daughter Clover was having hundreds of seizures a day before being given the medication.

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"Every time she woke up from a sleep or a nap she'd have a seizure or more than one seizure", she said.

"Now she will have, without fail, 6 days completely seizure-free and then on the seventh day, she'll have 24 hours where she might have between one and five seizures."

Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological conditions in the world. Almost 1 in 100 people in the UK have it according to Epileptic Action, a charity providing information, advice and support for people with the condition.

Clover's parents have joined dozens of other families calling for more prescriptions to be offered.

Daniel Jennings from the charity wants to see more research in the area so the benefits of cannabis-based medication can be recorded.

Mr Jennings said: "We're calling on the government, in the short-term at least, to cover the costs of these private prescriptions for families, but also in the long-term to prioritise this research and make sure we get some quality clinical data as soon as possible."

A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We sympathise with patients dealing with challenging conditions and the decision on whether to prescribe medicinal cannabis is rightly for clinicians to make.

"More evidence is needed to routinely prescribe and fund other treatments on the NHS and we continue to back further research and look at how to minimise the cost of these medicines."