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Deryn Blackwell, 17 years old, was diagnosed with leukemia four years ago in 2013. A years later, he was diagnosed for another type of cancer called Langerhans cell sarcoma. A total of five people, including Deryn, was afflicted with that cancer. Deryn is the first one, however, to be given the chance to battle two cancers at the same time, the Metro reports.
In a letter written and published in the Daily Mail, Callie Blackwell, Deryn’s mom, shared how she gave her son a painkiller that was infused with cannabis after every treatment administered to the boy failed to work. The painkiller wasn’t available in the UK.
Doctors agreed that the medicine can provide respectable or agreeable results for the boy, but since they haven’t really tested on the risks and side effects, they can’t prescribe it to Deryn or any other patient yet.
In Callie’s new book titled ‘The Boy In Seven Billion,’ she said, “We took a decision that will horrify many parents reading this—and horrified me, too. After all, I’d never seen anything positive come of smoking cannabis, and in my days working in nightclubs, illegal drugs had been my enemy.
“But if it could help my darling boy escape his daily torment, I was willing to try it.”
Simon Blackwell, Deryn’s dad, got the drug illegal from some dealer at a gas station. The drug, which is considered a class B drug, can put a person behind bars for up to five years just for possession.
Callie made a vaporize pen with the use of a rice cooker and vegetable glycerine. She said, “After ten minutes, Deryn said that the pain had decreased a little and he felt more relaxed, the words we had been longing to hear.”
When Deryn complained about the morphine and other drugs that were given to him, his mom directly gave him a cannabis tincture to his mouth. After half an hour, Deryn’s panic attacks subsided and became calmer.
Callie Said, “Over the coming days, my priority was allowing him to die with his faculties intact, so whenever Deryn felt a twinge somewhere, I would put another 5ml of the tincture underneath his tongue and, within a few minutes, he felt good again.
‘Deryn’s mouth, fingers, stomach, gums, tongue, hips, knees, legs and back had been constantly painful for as long as I could remember, so this was nothing short of fantastic.”
Deryn’s health improved and was eventually removed from the hospice when he managed to regain his strength. The boy, who’s now 17, graduated from high school with seven GCSE’s even though he only spent nine months within the last four years.
