Cavan links to Billy’s Law
The story of a Tyrone boy highlighted a major medical issue last week as the British Home Office issued an “exceptional licence” for medical marijuana to cover a “short term emergency”, writes Thomas Lyons.
“I got involved with Billy and Charlotte Cauldwell about 18 months ago,” Kristofer Shekelton from Kingscourt, who has a unique insight to the story of Billy, told the Celt.
Billy is from Castlederg in Co Tyrone. He suffers from intractable epilepsy causing him to have traumatic fits. Charlotte is Billy's mother. She has had a long road in seeking treatment for her son who can succumb to over 100 seizures a day.
When seeking a treatment for Billy's condition, Charlotte took her son to Los Angles where he was treated by a specialist neurologist: “They discovered that cannabis was the only treatment for his epilepsy,” Kristofer said. “It was a last resort for Billy. They found that a high concentrated form of cannabis oil could treat the epilepsy,” so Billy started his treatment in 2016 in the US, where medical marijuana is legal.
When Charlotte returned to Ireland, she continued to treat her son. Kristofer said that it was very effective.
Billy became the first person in the UK to receive a prescription after his local GP began writing prescriptions. Charlotte campaigns for high concentrate cannabis oil to be made legal in the UK, saying it has drastically helped her son's treatment.
However as the medication was unavailable, Charlotte made a trip to Toronto and back with her sick son to get a six-month supply to treat up to 100 seizures a day. The medication was confiscated at Heathrow Airport on Monday and Billy was admitted to hospital.
In a turnaround, the UK Home Office issued the “exceptional licence” as it examines how to deal with issue. For Kristofer he feels that both Ireland and the UK must move to address the issue.
“I am very active in Fianna Fáil. I have done a lot of campaigning in health issues. That was why I approached her to offer my support. We were negotiating in Leinster House. We came up with a law with no loopholes for recreational use. It is called Billy's Law,” he told the Celt.
He says that action must be taken now: “What we would hope is that this moves things along. In my time of campaigning with Charlotte, I have witnessed three people die because they have not had access to medicinal cannabis. One was a 16-year-old girl, one a 32-year-old man and the third was a 52-year-old man. They died because they could not get access to this medication.”
Kristofer says that there are a range of medical conditions that could be treated with medical cannabis from epilepsy to fibromyalgia and cancer to MS. He is hoping that Billy's Law will be considered by the Oireachtas before the Summer recess.