‘Billy’s thriving’: family’s joy as boy who helped legalise cannabis medicine in UK turns 21

Mother of Billy Caldwell, who has severe epilepsy, celebrates son’s story while pushing for better access to prescription cannabis for families who need it When Billy Caldwell was a baby he was not expected to survive infancy. A severe form of epilepsy condemned his tiny body to daily seizures – brutal, draining and each one potentially fatal. “They couldn’t get the seizures under control,” his mother, Charlotte, recalled. “Billy was sent home to die – we were told he wouldn’t see past his first birthday.” That prediction was in 2005. Last month Billy, who is autistic, celebrated his 21st birthday at home in a bucolic corner of Northern Ireland with family, friends, cake and a wide smile. He is alive and free of seizures, and is something of a celebrity: the boy who helped to legalise cannabis-based medicine in the UK. The Caldwell family achieved a political and medical milestone in 2018 that facilitated his survival and enabled cannabis-based treatments for other patients. “It was something I didn’t even dare dream about,” Charlotte said this week from the family home in Castlederg, County Tyrone. “It’s beyond words that Billy has reached 21. He’s no