Campaigner Vera Twomey: Little Ava now free of pharma
Medicinal cannabis campaigner Vera Twomey, who secured a licence for the medication for her ill daughter Ava Barry, has said the eight-year-old is now pharmaceutical free.
In a post on Facebook Ms Twomey says the child is solely being treated by medicinal cannabis CBD and THC.
“Ava has become officially pharma free. We were scared and excited at the same time to know what it would bring. The last couple of photos of Ava I think speak for themselves and as it happens so does Ava as she is singing the beginning of nursery rhymes now more and more.
Happy and healthy as we can be, we move forward better and brighter and [with Ava] looking forward to getting back to school.
Ms Twomey spoke in the the House of Commons in London earlier this summer where she explained the benefits of the alternative medicine in treating conditions such as severe epilepsy.
She became friendly with British mother Hannah Deacon when they lived on the same street in the Netherlands when they were both “medical refugees”.
She was in the Hague to receive medicinal cannabis for her daughter Ava while Hannah was in the same position with her son Alfie Dingley.
Ms Twomey from Aghabullogue, Co Cork, rose to national prominence in a three-year campaign to secure access to medicinal cannabis to treat Ava’s rare form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome. Her campaigning included two 260km walks from Cork to the Dáil to capture the Government’s attention. She also mounted a social media campaign. She and husband Paul had to live abroad with Ava to guarantee THC cannabis supply.
Ms Twomey says she continues to campaign for others who are in need of medicinal cannabis. She recently climbed Croagh Patrick with Noreen O’Neill from Co Kerry, who is hoping to get a licence for medicinal cannabis for her two-year-old son Michael.
Michael has a neurological condition called bilateral frontal polymicrogyric.
- Ms O’Neill has set up a petition seeking the legalisation of medicinal cannabis: www.change.org/p/simon-harris-minister-for-health-simon-harris-legalise-medicinal-cannabis- in-ireland-now
