We had to go private – the NHS won’t help despite the evidence
SCOTS mum Lisa Quarrell says the cannabis oil she buys for her epileptic son Cole Thomson has saved his life.
Cole will soon be eight and in two weeks he will have been seizure-free for a year, something unheard of under NHS prescription drugs.
But Lisa, an ex-cop from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, has to rely on imported oil from the Netherlands containing THC and the authorities here have refused to prescribe it on the NHS, even though as a mum, Lisa knows it has transformed Cole’s life.
As Cole has grown older and bigger, his dose of the oil has had to increase, meaning Lisa’s monthly bill has gone from £1000 to £1400.
Although Cole’s doctor and consultant have agreed to prescribe the oil, that has hit a brick wall because it is against British Paediatric Neurology Association guidelines.
Before Cole got access to the oil he could have up to 20 episodes a day.
Even though Lisa knows the treatment has had a major effect on her son’s treatment, no one is listening.
She said: “I have seen people in tears when they see the difference this treatment has made for Cole.
“I’ve gone from facing up to him being in a wheelchair, to now seeing him on his bike, like any normal seven-year-old.”
In May, Lisa was told that NHS Scotland would still not pay for the cannabis oil drug – Bedrolite.
The reason given was that it would be an “improper use” of funds since she had already decided to go “private”.
But Lisa says she had no choice but to go for a private prescription because it has saved her son’s life.
She added: “The NHS is supposed to be about helping save people.
“But they are not willing to do that even in the face of all this evidence in relation to Cole.”