Medical cannabis use in children could become a reality - almost a year after the case of a young boy whose medication was confiscated by the Home Office hit the headlines .
13-year-old Billy Caldwell, who has epilepsy , had his Canadian medication taken away at Heathrow airport in June of last year.
Since then his mum Charlotte has continued her work to have the plant-based medicine made available on the NHS at the point of need.
And now a meeting with a leading expert has offered hope of a breakthrough, Belfast Live reports .
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Charlotte, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone in Northern Ireland, said: “From our consultation with Prof Cross I can see very clearly that she and her team want to gain the evidence for optimal use of the right products through Clinical Trials. We are hoping we can now move this forward together.
“Billy has proved that it works for him and thankfully he is doing very well.
“A planned UK Clinical trial means other children could be given the chance to see if medicinal cannabis works for them.
“The end result we hope is NHS prescriptions for this amazing plant based medicine and no need for private and expensive prescriptions.”
With around 40 types of seizures associated with epilepsy, a single medicine is unlikely to be effective for them all.
Now the move towards trials of the medication means leading medical experts in the UK will examine a large number of plant based medicines so they can gather evidence to show which medicinal cannabis products react well with various types of epilepsy and seizures.
And the hoped-for result is that plant based medicines derived from the cannabis plant would be prescribed through the NHS for children with epilepsy.
Charlotte said: “It looks like I may be very, very close to getting an NHS prescription for Billy thanks to the absolutely brilliant Professor Helen Cross at Great Ormond Street hospital.
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“She acknowledged the benefits medicinal cannabis appeared to give to Billy, and will be talking further with Billy’s local team in Northern Ireland about providing an NHS prescription for medicinal cannabis.
“We had a very positive three hour consultation with Prof Cross during which she explained that because Billy had been on medicinal cannabis for two and a half years, the clinical need could be justified.
“So what’s going to happen now is that Prof Cross is going to speak to Billy’s local medical team in Northern Ireland and advise that with her help and supervision, they should support an NHS prescription.”
A spokesperson for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for Children NHS Foundation Trust said: "We can confirm that Billy Caldwell came to GOSH for a second opinion with Professor Helen Cross who is a leading expert in childhood epilepsy.
"She will be discussing the case with his local team who have primary clinical responsibility for his care while efforts continue to develop a robust evidence base around the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes."
