Remember Teagan Appleby?
For those who don’t follow her story, Teagan is a nine-year-old girl who suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which causes severe epileptic seizures. Earlier this year, she had to fly to the Netherlands with her mother, Emma, to get the medical cannabis she needs to treat and manage her condition.
Doctors back home in the U.K. refused to give her a prescription for the said cannabis medication. That’s because Teagan needs a high concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) combined with cannabidiol (CBD) to reduce her seizures. And doctors are just not willing to take the risk.
Emma had to raise thousands of pounds through crowdfunding in order to go abroad and get the medication for Teagan.
However, when Emma and Teagan landed at Southend Airport from Amsterdam in April, they were stopped by authorities and the £4,500 worth of cannabis oil capsules they had with them were confiscated. That was three months’ supply for Teagan.
Emma had to obtain a prescription from a specialist doctor to get the medication back. Fortunately, one specialist agreed to write her the prescription.
Medical cannabis transformed Teagan’s life
According to Emma, Teagan’s seizures have very significantly decreased since she started taking cannabis with THC. From having as many as 300 seizures in a day, the girl only has two in a day, and only when she is asleep.
Emma said that medical cannabis has transformed her daughter’s life.
Second time
However, what happened in April happened again earlier this month when Border Force confiscated another batch of medical cannabis for Teagan.
The family traveled again to the Netherlands and flew back home on June 6. Authorities at Gatwick Airport took away a month’s supply of cannabis this time. They told Emma that a private prescription was not enough and that she also needed an import license.
The story did end well, with the Applebys being handed back their THC/CBD oil on June 15. However, Emma said that this series of experiences had left her drained and exhausted. Aside from having to raise thousands of pounds to pay for her daughter’s medical cannabis privately, Emma said she also had to pay hundreds of pounds to fly abroad to actually get the medication. But, worse, she had to fight all the bureaucracy back home in order to get the medication through customs.
Moreover, who knows what will happen again when Teagan runs out of medication and they had to get another batch of it from the Netherlands.