Deryn Blackwell, a 14-year-old teen hailing from Norfolk, England, was in the midst of preparing his own funeral before cannabis saved his young life.
Blackwell, who had previously been fighting an extremely rare form of the disease known as Langerhans cell sarcoma, was living out what he and doctors thought to be the final days of his life under hospice care. Blackwell, who was also diagnosed with leukemia when he was 10, was cancer-free at the time, but the effects from the diseases had left Blackwell in remarkable pain, incredibly weak, and above all else—desperate.
That’s where cannabis comes into play.
A One-In-A-Billion Miracle
Medical marijuana, which is currently illegal in the UK, wasn’t suggested to treat Blackwell’s condition, but his mother, Callie Blackwell, was ready to do anything to help her son live.
Blackwell knew giving her son cannabis could land her a hefty punishment, but she didn’t care at this point. She just wanted to see her son return to normalcy.
“It got to a point, I knew I was facing 14 years if I was found out, but I would do every day of a 14-year sentence if it meant he was still here,” Blackwell said during an appearance on the British talk show Loose Women.
Deryn welcomed the treatment, because, like his mother, was willing to try anything at that point.
“I was on the brink of death, I was up for doing anything.” Deryn, now 17, explained. “I didn’t worry because, quite selfishly, if it didn’t work I wouldn’t be around to see what happened.”
“And if it did work, it’s fine,” he added.
It certainly did work.
“It wasn’t what I expected. We noticed within half an hour he was chilled out, the anxiety stopped, he was able to relax.” Callie noted on ITV’s This Morning. “Five days after he started taking cannabis, his bandages had come off.”
Teen Boy Explains How Cannabis Saved His Life
While cannabis use has ultimately saved Deryn Blackwell’s life, his mother wanted to make it clear that the alternative treatment didn’t actually cure her son’s cancer. Deryn technically was in remission at the time, and the plant simply had what she explains, a “profound effect” on his bone marrow.
“Deryn did not have cancer at the time. He had been in remission of cancer for a number of years.” Callie explained in a Facebook post. “He was dying because his fourth and final transplant had failed to engraft. He had three infections and NO immune system in which to fight them.”
It had been 70 days since Deryn’s last transplant, and Callie noted that no transplant had ever grafted after 50 days. However, after using cannabis, it miraculously reversed course, and his marrow began to take shape.
“Deryn was now at day 70 and was waiting to die from the three infections he had, I gave him cannabis and 5 days later, his bone marrow kicked in,” Callie recalled.”He was having NO other medications other than palliative and I even asked the doctors if any of those drugs could have helped and was told a resounding no.”
Callie said the doctors called her son’s case an absolute phenomenon.
“The doctors called him a miracle. I watched the bone marrow respond to the cannabis over a 6 week period,” she said.
The mother has gone on to chronicle her son’s battle with cancer and his miraculous recovery in her book The Boy In 7 Billion, which was released back in April.
According to Callie, her son has made a full recovery and is no longer feeling any residual effects of the disease.
“He is perfectly healthy,” Callie noted.
