Mother of epileptic girl 'shattered' after medical cannabis oil seized for second time

‘This is unforgivably cruel and unfair,’ says Emma Appleby after £2,500 of oils confiscated by border officials

Emma Appleby (left), her partner Lee and their daughter Teagan in April (PA)

A mother attempting to bring medical cannabis into the country for her severely epileptic daughter said she was “exhausted and shattered” after a second batch was seized by authorities.

Emma Appleby flew back to Britain from the Netherlands carrying a month’s supply of medical cannabis oil worth about £2,500 for her nine-year-old daughter Teagan.

Border Force officials confiscated the medication from her when she arrived back at Gatwick Airport on Thursday, she said.

“I am exhausted and shattered but I’ve seen how this medicine transforms my daughter’s life,” said Ms Appleby. “I have to find a way forward. The NHS just won’t prescribe. This is unforgivably cruel and unfair.”

Her daughter Teagan suffers from a rare chromosomal disorder called Isodicentric 15 as well as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which causes up to 300 seizures a day, she added.

It is the second time she has had medical cannabis oil seized after Border Force officials confiscated a three-month supply of the medication, which cost £4,600, from her at Southend Airport in Essex in April.

Ms Appleby, from Aylesham near Dover, said: “There seems no end to the stress and trauma of trying to access the medical cannabis that I have proved beyond doubt transforms the life of my daughter Teagan.”

After the first batch was seized, Ms Appleby and her partner Lee had to obtain a prescription from a specialist UK consultant to get it back.

Emma Appleby (centre) comforted by fellow campaigner Hannah Deacon in April (PA)

But this time, despite having a private prescription with her, she said she was told she now needs an import licence.

She added: “I believe that such a licence costs a lot of money. I am just a mum wanting to do the best for my child, not a company importing on a commercial basis.”

The law in the UK was changed last November to make medical cannabis legal, yet parents have still been struggling to access the drug.

Campaigners (left to right) Toni Antoniazzi, Emma Appleby, Joanne Griffiths, Benedict Lamb, Ashley West, Julie Young and Crispin Blunt, hand a petition demanding rule changes on medical cannabis use (PA)

NHS England guidance says it expects that cannabis-based products for medicinal use should “only be prescribed for indications where there is clear published evidence of benefit” and in “patients where there is a clinical need which cannot be met by a licensed medicine and where established treatment options have been exhausted”.

Ms Appleby was accompanied on her trip by MP Tonia Antoniazzi, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Medical Cannabis under Prescription.

The Labour MP for Gower called on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to “get a grip of this and sort it out”.

Ms Antoniazzi added: “The implementation of this new policy is a shambles. Emma should not have to get a private prescription and have to cope with going abroad to get the medicine with all the bureaucracy this entails.

“She should be able to get it on the NHS. Emma has enough to do caring for her very sick daughter. It’s unforgivable that parents like Emma are being passed from pillar to post like this.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “It is unlawful to import unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use to the UK without a Home Office importation licence.

“There is an established regulatory system which enables the importation of these products to the UK via pharmaceutical wholesalers, so they can be dispensed to UK resident patients prescribed these products by a specialist doctor. Border Force has a duty to enforce the law and stop the unlawful import of controlled substances into the UK.”

Additional reporting by Press Association