Teagan Appleby gets medicinal cannabis prescription

A mother caught trying to bring medicinal cannabis into the UK says her daughter has been issued a prescription for the drug.

Emma Appleby said a specialist doctor had now written a prescription for nine-year-old daughter Teagan, who has severe epilepsy .

Mrs Appleby wept as a three-month dose of THC oil and cannabidiol (CBD) was seized as she arrived from Holland.

She made the trip after failing to secure a prescription from UK doctors.

Mrs Appleby said she was "very happy" after a doctor signed off the use of the drug. "I literally cried in the car when I found out."

She said her daughter was now waiting for "the government to release the medication".

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the Commons on Monday that the drugs had not been destroyed and there was an "opportunity for a second opinion".

Teagan has a rare chromosomal disorder called Isodicentric 15, as well as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which causes her to experience up to 300 seizures a day.

Mrs Appleby hopes the drugs will reduce the number of seizures she experiences and give her the energy to regain her childhood.

"I hope it will make her a different child," she said.

"[The seizures] are just destroying her. She's not getting a typical nine-year-old's life, because she is too tired to do anything."

Doctors have been able to issue prescriptions for medicinal cannabis since 2018, but Teagan had not received one.

Mrs Appleby used money raised through crowdfunding to visit a pharmacy in The Hague, Netherlands.

She said that it was "wrong that it's taken me to do this to get it".

"Why should it be because I have made a fuss and caused a scene that I get the medication?" she said. "What about the other parents? If you need the medication you should get them."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We will not provide a running commentary on individual cases."