Mother calls for medical cannabis to help ease son’s epileptic seizure ‘nightmare’
A mother-of-three is calling for medical cannabis to be made available on the NHS in Scotland to help her five-yearold son who suffers from a rare form of epilepsy.
Karen Gray has launched a petition for Cannabidiol (CBD) oil to be prescribed to her son Murray in the hope it will to reduce the “nightmare” seizures that the youngster has to endure.
She said: “People who are supplying the CBD oil are saving lives and surely that’s a job for the NHS.”
Murray was diagnosed with myoclonic astatic epilepsy (MAE) at Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children in December after suffering 12 seizures in one month. He is currently in hospital where he is taking five different types of medicine including steriods which doctors believe may control his spasms. The case is similar to that of Alfie Dingley, a six-year-old boy from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, who has 20 to 30 seizures a day. His family are campaigning to have cannabis oil made available for medical purposes and Home Office ministers are looking at the possibility of a drug trial to help him.
Mrs Gray, from Edinburgh, said: “Murray’s been having chronic seizures since he was two years old but only about threeayearatthattime.helies down and starts to shake.
“Then last year they started to get a lot worse – he had six of them up until December and then he had 12 that month.
“You’ve got to stay calm. It’s a nightmare just watching him, you can’t do anything and you feel totally helpless.”
Mrs Gray is unable to look after him at home due to the severity of his condition. Murray also gets frustrated at not being able to feed himself.
She added: “If he’s trying to hold a spoon of food up to his mouth it goes everywhere, so I’ve got to hold it for him. He wants to do it himself, he’s very independent, he gets frustrated, but I’ve got to hold the spoon because he’s constantly twitching and shaking with the seizures.”
Cannabis oil is readily available and legal to buy, but having spoken with her doctor
“You’ve got to stay calm. It’s a nightmare just watching him, you can’t do anything and you feel totally helpless”