An 11-year-old on the brink of death from a severe form of epilepsy has made an ‘incredible’ recovery since taking medical marijuana.
Billy Caldwell, from Castlederg, Northern Ireland, made headlines in April when he became the first Briton to be prescribed such a drug on the NHS.
But his treatment actually began last November, when he was given cannabis oil by specialists in the US in hope it would control his vicious seizures.
And now, 10 months since he was first given the liquid cannabis oil, he hasn’t had any seizures. He used to suffer up to 100 a day.
Billy Caldwell (pictured with his mother Charlotte) suffers from particularly vicious seizures which cannot be controlled by medication. He now uses liquid cannabis oil
Born with intractable epilepsy and learning disabilities, Billy has since cheated death thousands of times, his mother said.
Charlotte told Derry Now: ‘Following extensive treatment with CBD oil, Billy is now more than 300 days seizure free.’
The 49-year-old, who is her son’s full-time carer, also told ITV News earlier this year the change has been ‘incredible, because one seizure can kill him’.
Billy takes four 0.6ml doses of two flavourless liquids a day to control his intractable epilepsy – unable to be controlled through diet or medication.
The first is cannabidiol (CBD), a derivative of cannabis which the UK watchdogs allows doctors to prescribe.
Health officials admitted last year that it has a ‘restoring, correcting or modifying’ effect on physiological functions when administered to humans.
But Billy also has an oil containing tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), which, when exposed to heat, forms the psychoactive component of cannabis.
THCA is, strictly speaking, illegal in the UK. It is categorised as a Class B drug alongside amphetamines and barbiturates.
However, when given in medicinal form – and not burned – THCA does not have the narcotic effect that smoking cannabis has.
Billy was originally prescribed cannabis oil in the US after he was taken to a world-renowned paediatric epilepsy specialist in California.
The last seizure the youngster endured was before he was given high doses of the medication under supervision from medical professionals.
After three months in Los Angeles, where medical use of marijuana has been legal for 20 years, Billy was stable enough to return home.
Ms Caldwell was given a two-month supply of the liquid cannabis oil to carry on taking – but when it ran out she had to ‘beg’ the family GP for more.
The landmark case is likely to pave the way for more epilepsy sufferers, of which there are around 50 million across the world, to demand such treatment.
Billy’s GP who made the decision to prescribe the drug, Brendan O’Hare, has also called for the Government to back further research into medicinal cannabis.