“It gave me hope that life won’t always be like this”

This year Kirran Gill became the first UK patient to have her medical cannabis treatment funded by the Sapphire Medical Foundation. Here she tells Cannabis Health what it means to have hope again.

Kirran Gill’s life has been devastated by chronic pain.

After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2011, and a short time later fibromyalgia, she not only lost her quality of life, but a career that she loved – and a husband who vowed to be there in sickness and in health.

Now 38, Kirran has experienced health issues since her late teens and first noticed pain while at university, although it was never severe enough to significantly impact her life.

But after she was involved in a car accident – where another driver hit the back of her stationary car at 40mph – the pain became a constant.

“From that moment on I was in extreme pain,” she says.

“It was incredibly aggressive and difficult to control. It took a while to get a diagnosis and I had to be quite tenacious, but eventually the tests came back that I had rheumatoid arthritis.

“My rheumatologist believes that it had gone into remission but the car accident triggered it.”

A year later Kirran’s husband left her out of the blue and shortly after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

In 2014, as her condition continued to decline, she was forced to give up her teaching job and was unable to work, struggling to do basic tasks such as housework or washing her hair.

“My body just couldn’t cope anymore,” says Kirran, who despite being prescribed a number of strong opioids was still left living with extreme pain on a daily basis.

It was her doctor who suggested she try cannabis, after she told him she had been trying CBD.

“I had always been quite conservative with regards to cannabis, but the fact that my doctor was suggesting it opened the door a little bit,” she says.

“I did a lot of research after that and continued to take CBD. When the law changed I thought there would be a chance for me to try it.”

But nothing changed for Kirran after November 2018. With no doctors prescribing on the NHS, she was among many patients still unable to access cannabis-based medicines.

“I couldn’t afford a private prescription,” she says

“It just wasn’t even an option for me.”

Kirran applied to the Sapphire Medical Foundation, which aims to cover the costs of medical cannabis treatment to help reduce financial barriers for patients.

In July 2020 she was selected as the Foundation’s first patient to successfully complete the grant making processes and a clinical specialist confirmed her eligibility for treatment with cannabis-based medicines.

“It meant everything,” says Kirran.

“The most important thing that it offered me was hope, the hope that one day I wouldn’t be in constant pain and I might be able to do things that ordinary people do, like walk around a supermarket.”

Since taking the medication Kirran has been able to sleep for longer than two hours at a time for the first time in 11 years.

She hopes it will help her manage the pain so she can reduce the amount of pharmaceutical drugs she has to take, having experienced the side effects of eight years of strong opioids.

“Although the opioids do remove some of the pain, they also have their own impact on my health,” she says.

“It was really important to be given an opportunity to see that maybe one day I won’t have to rely on them because there is a natural product out there that could do the job equally as well but with less side effects. That for me was and still is the real beacon of hope.”

She continues: “With me having a number of health conditions it is very much a journey. It’s not the case that I’m now pain free, but I’m hoping it will alleviate a great amount of my pain and will allow me to have a better quality of life.”

Kirran is also hoping she will be able to return to her work, after hearing the experiences of other medical cannabis patients through organisations and communities such as PLEA (Patient-Led Engagement for Access).

“Seeing the stories from other people who have used cannabis is really inspiring,” she says.

“That is my goal, that I will be able to return to teaching, because I desperately miss it.”

The Sapphire Medical Foundation is hoping to help other patients access medical cannabis, but with Covid restrictions preventing fundraising activities from going ahead this year, it is among many charities struggling to support those who need it.

“There are lots of people out there who are on tight budgets, particularly those who can’t work because of health conditions. It’s so important that those people don’t get forgotten about,” says Kirran.

“The people at Sapphire have been absolutely amazing. As far as I’m aware there is no other organisation out there that covers the cost of the prescription and the cost of the appointment.”

For Medical Cannabis Awareness Week, the Foundation launched its latest fundraising drive, with teams from across the industry challenged to walk, run and cycle the 550km distance from London to Holland. A journey many desperate patients and their families have made to access life-changing treatment.

“It’s hard for everyone at the moment and there are so many charities that are equally deserving, but for those of us whose quality of life has been severely impacted by the conditions it’s so important that there is hope,” adds Kirran.

“That’s what the Sapphire Foundation did for me, it gave me hope that one day I won’t have to live like this.”

To donate visit www.sapphirefoundation.co.uk/donations/mcaw2020