‘Medical cannabis cured my insomnia, but it’s almost impossible to get on the NHS and I’m campaigning for easier access’

A YouTuber who self-medicated with black market cannabis for more than a decade to cure her insomnia until she was able to obtain private prescriptions is campaigning for medical cannabis to be more easily accessible on the NHS in England as it is “impossible” for her to sleep without it.

Kady Hughes, 35, who lives in Suffolk, said she has struggled with insomnia and attention deficit disorder (ADD) for years, although she has never been formally diagnosed.

She has however been diagnosed with anxiety, hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), which is a painful, long-term skin condition, and carpal tunnel syndrome, pressure on a nerve in your wrist.

She took sleeping tablets for her insomnia but they had “zero effect” and this led her to start self-medicating with “street weed” as it helped to relax and clear her mind.

Kady said she would smoke 1g of the plant every day, which would cost her around £300 a month, and she worked multiple jobs, including in sales roles, in order to afford this.

She was even arrested once for cannabis possession and convicted of cultivating the plant in 2007, aged 18, with her ex-partner, leading to a community sentence but she explained that this was “purely” for medicinal purposes as she could not find another way to alleviate her crippling symptoms.

When cannabis-based products for medicinal use were made legal in the UK in 2018, Kady hoped she would be able to receive a prescription on the NHS, however, this was not the case.

According to the NHS, medical cannabis is only likely to be prescribed for the following three conditions: children and adults with rare, severe forms of epilepsy; adults with vomiting or nausea caused by chemotherapy; or people with muscle stiffness and spasms caused by multiple sclerosis (MS).

Kady has since been able to obtain plant-based medication through the clinic Alternaleaf, describing the service as “exceptional”, however, she is now campaigning for easier access to medical cannabis prescriptions on the NHS in England, as she struggles to sleep and function without it.

“I would feel embarrassed to try and get (medical cannabis) on the NHS when I know that they’re going to ask me these three questions,” Kady said.

“I will say I have anxiety, depression, carpal tunnel syndrome (and) HS, which is a skin condition, but that’s not enough.

“If you’re not in one of those options, you’re just going to be declined.

“I would like to see it available on the NHS for absolutely anybody at a lower cost and therefore it’s available consistently.”

Kady has struggled with insomnia, anxiety, depression, and ADD since her late teenage years but her symptoms became all-consuming in her 20s.

Every night, she would lie awake until she could hear the birds chirping in the early hours and when she finally managed to fall asleep, she would wake up in the afternoon.

This created a vicious cycle, as Kady would feel “depressed” that she had wasted the day and it led her down a path of “self-destruction”.

“When your mental health fails, you start believing anything, you put yourself down for anything because you’re so broken at that point,” Kady said.

“It would get to the point where I could hear the birds and then I would fall down the trap of thinking, what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I go to sleep?

“I started blaming myself for this because it’s not normal.”

Kady explained that her anxiety would manifest itself in “apprehension” about certain tasks that needed to be done, financial worries and an “impulse about having to do things”.

She would feel agitated and stressed and her lack of sleep would exacerbate her anxiety, creating a “knock-on effect for everything else”.

When she smoked cannabis, however, she said it helped to ease her irrational thoughts and stopped her from catastrophising.

“Cannabis gives me a different outlook when I’m feeling anxious. It allows me to truly understand myself, my feelings and my emotions,” she said.

“Without it, I don’t know what I’d do, it’s like a cog in my mind and it won’t stop.

“It is impossible for me to get tired if I have not medicated with cannabis.”

Kady explained that her sleep before using cannabis was “non-existent” but she had to obtain it illegally for years as the laws did not change in the UK until 2018.

Even then, however, it could only be prescribed under certain circumstances and Kady was technically an “illegal patient” up until she started receiving private prescriptions in 2021.

She later came across Alternaleaf, an online clinic for prescribing and administering medicinal cannabis in the UK and said she has “never been happier”. Her prescriptions are now delivered to her, meaning she no longer has to “feel like a criminal” by going to meet someone on the street.

All appointments, including the initial consultation and follow-ups, cost £49 and her prescription, which costs around £400 a month, has been tailored to suit her needs.

Kady said she has to make sacrifices to afford this but explained that she would not be able to “get through the day” or sleep without it.

“If I can’t get to sleep or I can’t sort my mind out in a way that I know cannabis can, then everything else is going to come crashing down,” she said.

Kady’s experiences led her to set up her own YouTube channel @KadysNewLife to educate and inform others about cannabis as she is not “ashamed” of using it.

Kady, who practises mindfulness, wants to break the stigma and help other patients and she is now campaigning for easier access to medical cannabis on the NHS in England.

According to figures released by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) in January 2023, a total of 89,239 private prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis-based medicines were issued between November 2018 and July 2022 in England but fewer than five of these were issued by the NHS.

The total number of NHS prescription items has not been disclosed due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) reasons.

Kady said she would love to see licensed cannabis dispensaries around the UK in the future where people with a registered medical card can access it more freely and cheaply.

She said: “I’ve never even bothered to try to get it from the NHS, because there are literally about five people who are registered on the NHS.

“If you do not have one of three conditions, then you’re not getting it.

“Whereas on a private prescription… you’ve got a flurry of illnesses that are covered because there is science to prove that the cannabis helps.”

Speaking about the impact medical cannabis has had on her wellbeing, she added: “My day-to-day life would not be the same if I wasn’t able to have cannabis remind me of my true self.”

An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS in England already offers several cannabis-based treatments that have been approved by the MHRA and recommended by NICE as safe and clinically effective.

“Many doctors and professional bodies rightly remain concerned about the limited evidence available concerning the safety and efficacy of unlicensed products.

“Manufacturers are encouraged to engage with the UK medicines licensed process, which can help provide doctors with the confidence to use the products, in the same way they use any other licensed medicines that are recommended for use on the NHS.”

To find out more about Alternaleaf, visit: consult.alternaleaf.co.uk