Turmoil of mother who is force to break the law to ease her pain
MOTHER-of-two Ceri Maddock Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, two months after the premature birth of her son Leo. She underwent surgery and chemo but in May she was given the devastating news that her condition was terminal.
Chemotherapy will help to prolong her life but it cannot cure her – so Ceri has chosen to take medicinal cannabis, which she finds eases some of the side effects of treatment.
She knows the drug is currently illegal. Yet Ceri, who lives in Epsom, Surrey, with her electrician husband Gary, 37, Leo, and eldest son Austin, five, is defiant: ‘I’m now on palliative chemo, which will hopefully give me more precious time with my gorgeous boys and husband.
‘But being told I was never going to be well again, and feeling dreadful on the chemo, I didn’t care about the law. I had to do this for my family.’
About 10,000 Britons are diagnosed each year with pancreatic cancer and there are around 9,200 deaths from the disease. Just one per cent of patients are still alive ten years after diagnosis.
Ceri first came across talk of medicinal cannabis online. Feeling that she had nothing to lose, she admits: ‘I managed to get hold of it via Facebook, and the group Cannabis Kills Cancer, which provided great advice on where to get it and how to take it.
‘I ordered CBD from a supplier in England and THC
from two suppliers in Europe. I started taking both daily, costing me £300 a month.
‘I put the paste under my tongue for two minutes until it is absorbed – it tastes disgusting, but compared to chemotherapy it’s not a problem. Within days the sickness that comes with chemo has faded.’
Scan show Ceri’s tumours are shrinking, meaning she could be a candidate for surgery. Although there is no evidence cannabis has this effect, she is convinced it has helped.