THE LETTER
Here is an abridged version of the letter Caroline sent to Home Secretary, Sajid Javid
Dear Home Secretary,
I am a brain tumour patient who is being kept alive by medicinal cannabis. Your promise to allow patients medicinal cannabis, when they desperately need it for a medical condition, was welcomed by many people like me.
However, my application for medicinal cannabis has not been forwarded to the expert panel because I cannot get two senior clinicians to endorse it. It is heartbreaking to be told that I cannot be considered because the right protocols have not been put in place.
Since taking a laboratory-tested THC version of cannabis in 2015, my scans have improved. My tumour has stabilised instead of the expected growth. I am still alive and here for my husband,
Gary, and son,
Jack.
I am still alive three years after being given less than a year. The median survival rates and life expectancy for a glioblastoma brain tumour patient is 15 to 16 months for people who get surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. I was unable to complete more than one session of chemotherapy because of adverse side effects.
My medicinal cannabis is taken with Sativex, the medicinal cannabis drug, which is prescribed privately. These are the only drugs I take. Medicinal cannabis is costing me £1,000 a month to import from Canada.
As you can imagine, this is a considerable burden on my family but it is the price of staying alive.
A previous application for medicinal cannabis, under the European Medicines Agency’s compassionate use/named person scheme, was also refused.
Can you assist please, by putting into place a way for doctors to prescribe me medicinal cannabis?