Mother of three dying for change: Poll

Dying, desperate and broke, Armidale mother-of-three Narelle Williams can add another title: criminal.

Each night before bed, she swallows half a capsule of cannabis oil in the hope it will reduce the size of the tumours slowly killing her.

She is one of thousands of Australians forced to source marijuana medicine on the black market. Despite a rising tide of public support in NSW for medical marijuana, campaigners fear the state government’s push for clinical trials means new laws will not be enacted until 2020.

For terminally ill patients such as Mrs Williams, that's too late.

Diagnosed with a rare cancer of the spine in 2011, the 47-year-old has been given just a Hail Mary hope of survival.

In a cruel twist, her best chance at life rests with an operation doctors are not prepared to perform.

“The doctors don't know how long I've got,” she said.

“I asked my neurosurgeon if he could try and remove the tumours but because of where they're located he said it was too risky.

“I would either die or be a quadriplegic for life.”

Bereft of options and hope, Mrs Williams scoured the internet for alternative therapies and stumbled across medical cannabis.

While multiple studies have shown the drug’s power to treat the nausea and loss of appetite associated with chemotherapy, a growing movement across the globe claims in some cases, it can also reduce the size of tumours.

“I’d been ignorant about it for a long time; I thought it was all about pot-smoking hippies,” Mrs Williams said.

“I’d run out of options and I had nothing to lose.”

She tried to source cannabis oil “through a friend of a friend” but was told it would cost $3000 for a 60-day treatment.

“We’d lost everything we worked for after my diagnoses; we just couldn’t afford it,” she said.

In desperation, she reached out to Tamworth medical marijuana crusader Lucy Haslam, who put her in touch with a far cheaper supplier.

For the past five months, Mrs Williams has taken the cannabis oil and said it had worked where traditional medicine failed.

“I’ve noticed a huge difference in my energy levels and the tumours have remained the same size since I started,” she said.

“I just think people with a terminal illness should be able to buy this oil legally and also use crude cannabis.

“Legal meds can be far more dangerous, I can vouch for that.”

And she said had a stern message for authorities that might consider her a criminal.

“I was a bit afraid of breaking the law at first but now I don’t care,” she said.

“If I got busted, I would just ask any cop or politician to look into my kids’ eyes and tell them they deserve to grow up without a mother.”