Local Lib Dems Support Alfie Dingley

Chair of Shepway Liberal Democrats and Sandgate Parish Councillor Gary Fuller has written to Damian Collins MP to urge him to intervene with the Home Secretary in the case of Alfie Dingley. Alfie suffers from an extremely rare form of epilepsy and can suffer up to 30 severe seizures per day. He has been denied a licence for medical cannabis, which is the only treatment that significantly reduces the number of seizures he suffers. Fellow local Lib Dems and parish councillors Tim Prater and Neil Matthews have also written to Damian Collins urging him to act. They wrote:

"Alfie has a very rare form of epilepsy. He suffers from clusters of 20 to 30 seizures a day every 7-10 days, all of which result in hospitalisation and treatment with drugs which his doctor has said will cause him mental and physical illness. Only medical cannabis gives him significant relief from his symptoms.

When treated with it, his seizures come once every 27 days on average and they are less severe. In desperation, Alfie and his family have been spending significant amounts of time in Holland where medical cannabis is legal. But Alfie and his family can no longer afford to live in Holland and have had to return home without one of his cannabis medications as it is illegal here in the UK.

His case typifies in so many ways the suffering caused by the Government's refusal to accept the evidence that medical cannabis has a real benefit to patients. My understanding is that MPs from across the House, led by Crispin Blunt MP and Jeff Smith MP together with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, are coming together to press Alfie's case.

On my behalf, please, would you join them and write to the Home Secretary urging her to issue the licence that Alfie so urgently needs."

Commenting, Gary said:

"It was heartbreaking to see the story of Alfie Dingley, who is being denied access to medical cannabis in the UK. I like thousands of others have asked my MP to intervene by visiting https://endourpain.org/find-my-mp/."

For more information about the campaign to allow doctors to prescibe medical cannabis, please visit https://endourpain.org/.