Schoolboy delivers letter to Prime Minister urging him to make medical cannabis available on NHS

9 year old Thomas Braun's little brother has severe epilepsy

Author: Claire HannahPublished 16th Jun 2021

The 9-year-old brother of a child suffering from severe, complex epilepsy has written a personal letter to the Prime Minister urging him to help get an NHS prescription for the medical cannabis that helps keep his brother safe.

Thomas Braun will stand outside Number 10 Downing Street today with a copy of the letter.

His brother Eddie has severe, complex epilepsy and can suffer up to 100 different seizures a day.

Currently, there is a near total block on NHS prescriptions for the type of medical cannabis that was shown to be life transforming for the likes of then 6 year old Alfie Dingley who’s campaign in the summer of 2018 played a large part in securing the legalisation of access to medical cannabis under prescription in November of that year.

Only three cannabis prescriptions given since legalisation

Despite that law change, there have been only 3 NHS prescriptions with other families with similarly affected families having to pay privately for the medicine at a cost of up to £2,000 a month.

In his letter to the PM, 9-year-old Thomas explains that caring for a disabled or medically complex child can be hard enough for his mum and dad and they shouldn’t have the added worry and stress of making sure that there’s enough fundraising to meet the private medical cannabis bill every month.

Thomas hopes that his letter will spur the PM into action and help the other affected families too, many of whom campaign under the End Our Pain banner.

Hear all the latest news from across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and Falkirk on the hour, every hour, at Forth 1. Listen on FM, via our Radio Forth app, on your DAB radio, online at Forth1.com, or say ‘Play Forth 1’ on your Smart Speaker.