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Home / Lifestyle

UK woman given six weeks to live 'cured' with cannabis oil

Daily Mail
13 Mar, 2018 12:36 AM4 mins to read

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Joy Smith says medical cannabis oil 'cured' her of cancer. Photo / 123RF

Joy Smith says medical cannabis oil 'cured' her of cancer. Photo / 123RF

A woman in the UK claims cannabis oil has "cured" her terminal cancer.

Joy Smith, 52, from Coventry, was given just six weeks to live after being diagnosed with inoperable stomach and bowel cancer in August 2016.

Desperate for a solution, Smith reluctantly took cannabis-based tablets, alongside chemotherapy, after reading about a cancer patient in the US who went into remission after producing her own marijuana oil, the Daily Mail reported.

Nearly two years on, doctors, who described Smith as "the luckiest woman in the world", are baffled as her scans show just a small amount of the disease is left in her stomach, which she is confident will disappear with continued cannabis use.

As well as approaching a miracle remission, Smith has also recently won £84,000 ($160,000) after entering a TV competition while "under the influence" of cannabis oil.

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She is speaking out to encourage cannabis' legislation for medical use, saying: "I'm a walking miracle. The doctors call me Wonder Woman," she told the Daily Mail.

"Cannabis oil should be legalised for medical purposes - people are dying and chemotherapy isn't curing them."

Smith takes the nutritional supplement cannabidiol, which is derived from cannabis and is legal in the UK, however, her treatment also contains THC, which is what makes users "high" and is not permitted.

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She is believed to buy the oil illegally online.

Speaking of taking cannabis oil, which she describes as being like eating "thick black tar" mixed with olive oil, Smith said: "When you're told you have six weeks to live you'll try anything, trust me.

"I was a bit sceptical about the oil at first as I'd never taken drugs or anything like that - but I know I would not be here today without it. I want to tell everybody."

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Smith was told chemotherapy would only buy her more time.

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She started having treatment every two weeks for three days, but had to have the line that delivered her chemotherapy taken out after she developed sepsis.

Smith was unaware her friends had been researching an alternative cancer cure online until she was handed a cannabis-based tablet out of the blue.

She said: "I didn't want to take it at first; I didn't know what it was.

"Afterwards I felt drunk, all the nurses were looking at me and I was trying to act normal. I couldn't speak, my words just slurred out."

Smith then started researching cannabis oil online and discovered it had worked for other sufferers.

She said: "I was looking for reassurance. I wanted to know if anyone had ever been cured by it.

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"I was taking it on and off. But when I'd been having it three-to-five times a week, the scans were getting better and then when I stopped taking it the scans showed no change.

"At first I was only taking a tiny drop the size of about half a grain of rice.

"Sometimes it takes hours to kick in and sometimes it's straight away. You do get stoned and you get very tired. It made me want to sleep so I tend to just stay in bed when I've taken it."

Describing her miraculous discovery, Smith said: "It's impossible, but I've beaten science. My friends kept saying if anyone was going to beat it, it would be me, and I did - I'm still here.

"People are starting learn more about it now, it's what's keeping me here.

"When people are dying something needs to be done. I want to do everything I can to get it legalised for medicinal purposes in the UK."

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"I wouldn't be here now without it."

A few days after learning she has nearly beaten the disease, Smith discovered she won a competition she entered while "high".

She said: "I would have been stoned in bed and I entered an ITV competition, it must have been a text to win one.

"I'd just got back from the trip when Loose Women phoned me to tell me I'd won £84,000 - I thought they were winding me up!"

After ticking everything off her bucket list after she received the terminal diagnosis, Smith is unsure how to spend her prize money.

She said: "I did everything I wanted to do. The money doesn't even feel real at the moment, it's just so surreal. It's been a whirlwind."

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