Mine blast widow fights another battle
Woman who lost husband in Pike River disaster uses cannabis oil for relief from aggressive blood cancer
Pike River widow Anna Osborne will continue to self- medicate with marijuana after being told chemotherapy has failed to rid her of cancer.
Her husband Milton was among 29 miners and contractors killed in the West Coast mine explosion six years ago.
She has been fighting cancer since her husband’s death. She was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2002, but the blood cancer returned just a month before the tragedy.
She also battles muscular dystrophy — which will see her hospitalised yet again this month for close friend and trade unionist Helen Kelly during the final days of her fight with lung cancer. Kelly died on October 14.
“Three weeks before Helen died I spent a week with her and was massaging the balm into her legs and arms. The relief, she said, was just amazing. I was really pleased to be able to do that for her,” Osborne said.
Refusing to seek permission from the Ministry of Health to use cannabis products, Osborne says she can’t even see the point in asking.
“I don’t see why I need to go through those channels — I know I have cancer and I know what cannabis oil does for me. That’s good enough for me.”
Osborne says she’s hoping an alternative to blood stem cell transplant could be found. “It’s not something I’m really thinking about at the moment. I know it’s an option, I know it’s there, but just the thought of it makes me cringe at the moment.”