Jenna Heary (right) has begged doctors to trial a cannabis-based cure on her daughter Olivia Botham (left)
The desperate mother of a two-year-old who suffers 100 epileptic fits a day has begged doctors to try a cannabis-based cure for her little girl.
Jenna Heary, 22 wants to trial the class B drug in a last ditch attempt to rid her daughter, Olivia Botham, 2 of the seizures that plague her.
Olivia has been left blind by her condition and partially paralysed after showing symptoms of a severe form of epilepsy, Early Myoclonic Encephalopathy (EME), at just one month old.
Due to a series of seizures throughout her young life Olivia is unable to walk or talk.
But Jenna and Olivia’s father Matthew Botham, also 22, are determined to give the ill toddler a better quality of life for however long she has left.
Ms Heary said: ‘She can go [die] anytime, she could have sudden unexplained epileptic death where she goes so bed and just doesn’t wake up.’
Olivia suffers from a severe form of epilepsy called Early Myoclonic Encephalopathy (EME) that left her unable to walk or talk (pictured with her father Matthew left and grandmother Michelle right)
The youngster is already on six bouts of different medications but mum-of-two Jenna claims it isn’t working and wants to try oils containing elements of cannabis.
She has even tried putting her on a ketogenic diet which is a specialised medical diet.
Jenna and Olivia’s father Matthew Botham, also 22, are determined to give the ill toddler a better quality of life for however long she has left
It is a treatment option for children with epilepsy whose seizures can’t be stopped or at least reduced by medicine – but this has failed to work as well.
She now hopes that Olivia can secure a clinical trial spot so she can use CBD medical cannabis oil or Cannabidiol to help reduce and control the seizures.
Jenna from Preston in Lancashire, said: ‘In one child I heard of who took the trial, the oil reduced her seizures by about 50 per cent.
‘I want to get her on a trial to make her just that little bit more comfortable and if it reduces her seizures that would be a real bonus – it’s our last resort.’
Jenna, who cannot work because Olivia needs round the clock care, said: ‘She started having these eye flickers.
‘Then one night she cried so much that in the end she wasn’t even making a sound, she had gone lethargic and she wasn’t feeding so I took her to A&E.’
Cannabidol, a drug derived from cannabis but with the psycho-active elements emitted, has helped thousands of epilepsy sufferers, research has found.
The family are desperate to try anything to help as the youngster is already on six bouts of different medications but mum-of-two Jenna claims it isn’t working