A mother has spoken about her decision to give her six-year-old child cannabis oil in a bid to help ease his chronic seizures. Hannah Deacon appeared on Loose Women this week to talk about son Alfie's health, and was met with an outpouring of support from viewers as she made an emotional plea for the government to make the drug available in this country. Little Alfie has a very rare form of epilepsy called PCDH19 and was suffering around 30 fits a day before his parents took him to the Netherlands, where he was given medicinal cannabis oil – which contains the illegal chemical THC. Hannah said that Alfie's seizures reduced to just one a month while he was on the drug – and admitted she is now more concerned about the steroids Alfie is currently being prescribed by the NHS now that they are back in the UK.
© Photo: RexHannah Deacon appeared on Loose Women to discuss son Alfie's health battle
"The drugs that my son is on, anti-epileptics, steroids, they will make him psychotic, they will make him mentally ill," she said. "Three drops of THC is all he needs… It binds the receptors in his brain and it makes your seizure threshold be a lot higher." Asked by Stacey Solomon if she was worried about any of the side-effects the government say can come from taking THC, she replied: "I worry a lot more about the drugs he is on at the moment."
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Alfie was just four when he was diagnosed with PCDH19. Hannah revealed that there are only five boys in the world who have been diagnosed with the rare strain. She said she had joined a support network in the US and "immersed" herslf in learning about using cannabis oil as a "safe and effective" measure.
© Photo: RexHannah spoke about her decision to give her son cannabis oil to help ease his seizures
"I didn't want to do it illegally because I was afraid to lose my child," she confessed. "We got advice from my doctor in the UK, his words were, 'You have no choice'. We found a paediatric neurology, she prescribed the medicine, and within six months he was having one seizure a month." She added: "There's an important discussion between medicinal use and recreational use."
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Hannah's appearance was met with an outpouring of support from viewers, with one writing: "Will keep your family in my prayers Hannah. It's high time the tide of injustice turned, no one deserves to have to be outing up with all of that rubbish." A second added: "I pray that the UK starts looking into this! Watching my 12 year old suffer with his CP daily breaks my heart, but like Hannah I don’t want to do anything illegal. The drugs we are expected to pump into our kids are far more damaging in my opinion!"
