Cardiff family struggle to pay cannabis prescription despite son's "better quality of life"
It helps Bailey control around 200 seizures a day
The family of a boy who suffers with epilepsy are traveling from South Wales to Downing Street to demand a change in legal cannabis prescriptions.
Rachel Rankmore's son Bailey has a rare form of epilepsy which caused him to suffer around 200 seizures a day, before medicinal cannabis oil began to help.
In 2018, the UK Government approved the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes and made it available on the NHS.
Since then, only 3 NHS prescriptions have been passed, with those issued a private prescription having to pay around £1200 per month.
Mrs Rankmore will be among a group of campaigners in London today, demanding to speak with MPs over the failure of the policy.
They'll be asking why an NHS prescription for cannabis oil still can't be obtained, despite it being legalised 3 years ago.
"They’ll hand the petition in yet again. Chances of them getting invited in, we’re not sure", Rachel said.
"We still can’t obtain NHS prescriptions because there are still blocks. We’re just asking for funding until it is available on the NHS and those blocks are actually taken away.”
Bailey's family have even had to resort to fundraising to help cover the costs of his privately-issued medicine, which Rachel says he needs as it gives him "a better quality of life."
"It can be anything up to 2,000 pounds depending on the dose and which oil that he needs", she went on to say.
"At the moment it’s around £1200 pounds a month, which is still really hard to find when Craig is working full time; I'm a full time carer to Bailey, it’s just not sustainable."
Rachel is not the only one who is voicing concerns over the difficulty to obtain a legal cannabis prescription for her child, with many other parents taking to social media.
A campaign group on Twitter called End Our Pain is similarly calling for change in regards to making cannabis prescriptions more accessible.
The group regularly retweets cases of children suffering with epilepsy that are unable to access medicinal cannabis, calling on Secretary of Health and Social Care Sajid Javid to intervene.