Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Gran: You owe it to your sick child to access drug
A GRANDMOTHER is urging families with sick children to ask their doctors to apply for medicinal cannabis licences to show the need is real.
Muriel Mcmahon, from Hannahstown, Co Antrim, said the natural medication is her grandson’s only hope of surviving drug-resistant epilepsy and having any quality of life.
Patrick, 21, started suffering seizures when he was two and 19 years on he spends much of his time hospital where he is treated with various levels of sedation.
Muriel said: “He has no life. He has multiple type of seizures associated with Lennox-gastaut syndrome which are drug-resistant.
“There is no pattern and very little warning for many of the seizures and he has suffered endless injuries from burns from a radiator to broken bones and lacerations.
“He broke six bones in his foot last week when he fell off a chair.
“He has been sedated and treated with all sorted of drugs but nothing works. His clinician has now applied for a licence to get him medical cannabis but he has warned me it may not work.
“We know the drugs we’ve tried don’t work and having to sedate our lovely boy night and day to keep him safe means he has no quality of life.
“Medicinal cannabis is his only hope and now that the Government is working towards decriminalising, means we could soon have Patrick home and living and life worth living. “He is the most loving and affectionate person but this condition is killing him. “My fear now is people don’t understand that medical cannabis is coming available and they don’t know to ask for it.
“I’d urge anyone with a loved one who feels they could get some relief with medical cannabis to ask their GP and their consultants right now for access to it and to ask them to apply.
“My heart is broken watching my grandson live like this, to watch my daughter’s tears and upset.
“But tonight a little piece was put back in place with the hope that Billy Caldwell and his mummy Charlotte have given us and the fact that they have been listened to.”