On Saturday, April 6, officials at the London Southend Airport seized a three-month supply of cannabis oil that Emma Appleby was bringing back from Holland for her 9-year-old daughter Teagan.
Teagan suffers from Isodicentric 15 (Dup15q syndrome), as well as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome which can cause her to have up to 300 seizures a day.
Health Minister Matt Hancock told the House of Commons on Monday that the government would not destroy the cannabis oil would and that the Applebys would have the opportunity to obtain the proper paperwork for it.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Appleby announced in a Facebook video that she had managed to obtain a private prescription for Teagan, but they still needed the cannabis oil returned.
“End Our Pain and my MP are pushing hard but we don’t seem to be getting anywhere,” wrote Mrs. Appleby on Thursday. “I have done everything they have asked for and they still won’t give use Teagan’s medicine!!”
Mrs. Appleby called the situation outrageous and pleaded with people to press the government for the release of Teagan’s cannabis oil.
But on Friday, efforts to get back Teagan’s medicine came to fruition as Mrs. Abbleby announced via Facebook that the government was returning all of it.
“Happy to say that Teagan Appleby’s cannabis-based medicine has arrived and is ready to be collected,” Hancock tweeted on Friday. “We are working hard across government to ensure we get these medicines to those who need them.”
In the Commons last month, Hancock expressed his sympathy to parents who are having difficulty obtaining cannabis oil for their children.
The Health Minister said that he is working to remove some of the barriers that exist in the current system but stated that “these things need to be clinician-led.”
