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Devon mother calls for drug to help with Muscular Dystrophy

A mother from Devon is calling for a potentially life changing muscular dystrophy drug to be made available on the NHS. Today she joined a group of campaigners at Downing Street who say the drug is taking too long arrive.

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PM receives petition calling for ground breaking drug to be more widely available

The Prime Minister accepts the petition calling for Translana to be made more widely available. Credit: ITV News West Country

The Prime Minister has personally intervened in a campaign by a family from Devon to make a ground breaking drug more widely available.

The parents of Leo Le Gal, from Ivybridge, say it has slowed the onset of his muscle-wasting condition, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. But Leo is only getting the drug, Translana, as part of an American trial - it's still not approved here.

Today other parents gathered outside Downing Street calling for Translana to be made available here - and responding to a letter from another nine year old boy, the Prime Minister said he'd look into it.

On his return to Downing Street, Mr Cameron did just that, chatting to the boy and his family, and in a highly unusual move, accepting the petition and posing for pictures himself.

Tonight NHS England said that the drug might be fast tracked - for patients whose doctors say they have an urgent need.

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