Mum in drug trial win for families of kids with epilepsy

Development could lead to more NHS prescriptions

- PJIL CARDY, MARTYIN HALLE

TRIALS are finally starting into the benefits of cannabis-based medicine for children and young people with epilepsy after a mum spent years campaigning.

Charlotte Caldwell's son Billy used to have up to 300 seizures a day until he started on medicinal cannabis.

Doctors have so far been reluctant to prescribe cannabis products on the NHS in the absence of clinical trials, even though they are legal.

This has led a booming market where private doctors are able to charge desperate parents up to £2,000 a month.

Charlotte started her crusade six years ago after Billy's medicinal cannabis, prescribed by a doctor in Canada, was seized at Heathrow Airport. That led to the law change and Billy, 18, getting his NHS funded prescription cannabis in 2018.

But the lack of formal trials means thousands of other parents still have to go private.

Charlotte hopes the major breakthrough with the trials could make cannabis-based medicines more readily available on the NHS.

She said: "If the trials are successful, it means no other child suffering with refractory epilepsy will have to endure the long and tortuous journey Billy did to receive life-saving treatment on the NHS."