“Because of Brexit and the new rules we cannot obtain it legally at the moment”
Brits are starting to feel the true effects of Brexit that many warned would be a catastrophic consequence of leaving the EU and the customs union, as six-year-old Indie-Rose is unable to obtain her vital epilepsy medication.
Indie-Rose’s rare, severe condition called Dravet Syndrome is treated by a cannabis based medicine, produced in the Netherlands but legally prescribed by doctors in the UK.
However, due to the new rules of the Brexit trade deal, the prescription is no longer recognised by EU countries.
Indie-Rose needs the medicine to minimise her life-threatening seizures but her family can’t get their hands on it at the moment.
Speaking to ITV in Suffolk, Indie-Rose’s mother Tannine Montgomery said: “There is no route of access [to the medicine].
“Because of Covid, we can’t fly. Because of Brexit and the new rules, we can’t obtain it legally anyway at the moment.
“So there’s a blanket ban on the only medication she takes – she doesn’t take any other medication. We have nothing else to give her.”
This has left the parents feeling worried they will be back to rushing Indie-Rose to the hospital in the event of a seizure, Montgomery says.
In her infancy, doctors tried numerous different treatments to ease her seizures, but by the age of 3, she was suffering from up to 75 fits in a single day. Having exhausted all conventional options, her parents then looked into medicinal cannabis, which has made her seizures much less frequent.
“We’ve got down to four a month,” Montgomery explains. “So the difference is absolutely huge. And crucially, just her happiness. The fact that her body is not suffering from having seizures all the time.”
