Vera Twomey, the mother of Ava Twomey, took to Facebook to share her delight at the news.
Minister for Health Simon Harris has signed a licence for Ava Twomey, a seven-year-old girl from Cork, to access medicinal cannabis.
Harris confirmed the news in the Dáil on Tuesday while Ava’s mother, Vera Twomey, who has long campaigned for access to medicinal cannabis, even walking from Cork to Dublin to draw attention to her daughter’s plight, took to Facebook to express her delight at the news.
“Hi everybody, I just want to let you know that we have some really, really good news, that Ava has been granted the licence for the medicinal cannabis and we’re coming home,” Twomey said in a video posted to her Facebook page.
“I just want to thank everybody for the support and everything. We’ll be home for Christmas and she’s doing really, really well and we just can’t wait to get her back to Aghabullogue and she’ll be even better there.”
Diagnosed at four months, Ava Twomey suffers with a rare genetic condition, known as Dravet Syndrome, which, untreated, can result in up to 20 epileptic seizures a day.
Speaking to JOE last year, Vera Twomey revealed the progress Ava had made while taking Charlotte’s Web, a particular brand of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, CBD, saying: “My daughter has started speaking, before October (2016) she wasn’t speaking at all.”
The Twomeys recently moved to The Netherlands to access treatment for Ava but will return home “as soon as they can” after today’s news.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
