Billy and Charlotte Caldwell Reach Parliament

For Mother’s Day I did a story about Moms around the world who have done incredible things to protect their children. In each case, cannabis medicine was the thing that kept the kids alive.

One of these Moms has been in the news again - Charlotte Caldwell of Tyrone, Northern Ireland. She has fought for her son Billy for 15 years now (aided by a legendary Facebook campaign "Keep Billy Alive"), during that time, not only she able to get the medicinal cannabis law changed ("The Boy Who Changed the Law"), but hundreds of families of patients with similar life-threatening conditions contacted her with requests for help.

Charlotte's new campaign, "I am Billy" to give other vulnerable and seriously ill UK patients access to cannabis medicines through

• publicly funded prescriptions

• a non-profit cannabis clinic, and

• clinical trials of patients who are already taking cannabis medicine.

As reported in Forbes last week, "“A young boy and his single mother are in the midst of a 1,000-mile walk across the United Kingdom to raise awareness and funds to provide medicinal cannabis to chronically ill patients… Charlotte Caldwell and 15-year-old son Billy, who suffers from refractory epilepsy and autism, have crossed by ferry to Great Britain on an expedition scheduled to end at the Houses of Parliament on June 14.” (see "Courageous Boy And Mum Walking Across The UK To Support Medical Cannabis Access"

It’s hard to overstate how ambitious this Walk to Parliament has been for Billy.

He has been on the brink of death more times than Charlotte could count, he’s autistic and non-verbal, and now he is walking 1,000 miles for the benefit of other cannabis patients.

They walked about 5 KM per day, sleep in their tent, and are attracting quite a crowd of people who are walking with them.

It’s the most amazing thing to watch. He loves Harry Potter, so that’s a big theme every day.

TODAY IS THE DAY THEY REACHED PARLIAMENT

After a difficult 1,000 mile journey in (thankfully) nice weather, Charlotte and Billy rallied one last time in Leicester Square at noon for the last mile. Dozens of supporters were on hard to accompany their last brave steps.

I'll let Charlotte's social media post tell the rest:

"And so the Wizard delivered his letters today and sadly didn’t get to meet Secretary of State due to COVID announcements etc .

To be absolutely and totally honest his head went down a little and he looked sad.

But then as we left London and headed back to campsite for the night my phone went “BING “ !

And right there in the blink of an eye his little world was happy again - only a letter from the Right honourable

Matt Hancock landed in my personal email - apologies for not meeting and will send a confirmation date through as soon as - he is very interested in the Wizards solution - studies for NHS vulnerable chronically ill patients carried out from I am Billy non profit clinic, first of its kind in the UK.

He was SO happy guys. He was zooming up and down and flailing around and squealing so loud my heart could burst.

The greatest gift - the Wizard is most definitely going to have a meeting with his right honourable friend.

So proud of this little boy . I can’t believe he is going to get his meeting. Today has been the biggest blessing in his little world, and I have never seen him so happy.

B&C 💜

The website is www.IAmBilly.UK, there’s information and a donation page.

IMAGE source: Yahoo