Take a glance at this petite lady with the business-like blonde bob, and you would have no idea the daily pain she endures.
She has good days and bad, the worst when she has to sit down in the street, so exhausted she loses her bearings.
But Laura Brennan-Whitefield doesn’t let her chronic and debilitating illness rule her world.
So determined is she to ease the symptoms of her Multiple Sclerosis she took to the stage in front of 3000 faces at the 2016 SNP conference.
The 32-year-old received wholesale support for her resolution to legalise cannabis in Scotland for medical use.
She said: “I have never done anything like this before. But I wasn’t nervous, and I never am doing something I feel is right.
“I like many other people take legally prescribed opiates to ease pain… why not cannabinoids?”
It was nine years ago while a university post grad student – she’d earlier graduated with 2:1 honours in politics – that Laura first felt strange.
She was standing at Paisley Gilmour Street waiting for the train home to Ayr.
“It was pretty scary really and could feel tingling in both my legs, which was strange as if I had been sitting funny.
“The next day it was still there, and worse so I went to A&E Ayr Hospital thinking I was having a stroke.
“They said it was just a virus but I then went to my doctor. He said there was something really wrong with me and they picked up my vitamin B12 was really low which was a bit suspicious.
“I quickly got an MRI and it was obvious it was MS.
“I knew nothing about MS – I thought sun glasses, wheelchair and dead.
“Fortunately drugs can slow it down and nine years later I am still here.”
Laura does not have particularly aggressive MS, but it’s still bad enough.
Her limp is noticeable and at the moment pain seems to have worsened, probably requiring a medication change.
But she counts herself lucky, saying: “I am still working, walking, driving, smiling and annoying people.”
She still manages to work part time as a receptionist in Ayr, the firm taking her on in full knowledge she has MS.
Her MS has no reason nor rhyme, sometimes she is fine and then she will feel so tired like she has been up for 48 hours.
That means looking after her energetic toddler Iona, 18 months, can be something of an experience.
Though she describes her long term partner Stephen, 35, as her “rock” who helps keeps it all together.
Laura, who has a senior Labour politician in the family, was a late convert to the SNP and joined just after the Referendum.
She worked on Jennifer Dunn’s campaign to win the Ayr Holyrood seat and her resolution to conference was seconded by Jen.
And it was her conviction that MS sufferers should not be criminals using cannabis for pain relief that led her to the stage in Glasgow’s SECC.
She did not know until late on that her resolution under the Ayr North banner would be allowed to be heard.
Laura explained: “You don’t know until the day if another member will remit it back. But I had my speech all written and was ready to go.
“So on the morning session of day three I presented my resolution. The most people I had ever spoken to before was probably about 30 people at an SNP branch meeting in Troon.
”But I don’t this is just an SNP issue, I think there is cross party support.”
Laura insists she has never taken cannabis, instead relying on others for the “overwhelming” evidence of its pain relieving qualities.
Laura has to use a variety of medication including the opiate Tramadol – which she says is “awful” – which she takes for back pain brought on by her funny gait.
She also has to take muscle relaxants to try and stop the burning sensations MS gives.
“These sensations are like someone taking a kettle of boiling water and pouring it down your leg.
“The pain is not actually in the leg, but stems from the brain which gives out muddled messages because MS damages the myelin sheath which insulates the nerves. Scotland has the highest rate of MS in the world.”
She doesn’t want to break the law by growing her own or buying from a backstreet dealer, instead popping into the chemist for some cannabis pills.
“I’ve got a job and a child. I don’t want a criminal record – but I am really keen to use it legally,” she says.
Prescribed cannabis would not just ease MS pain, but other chronic conditions like cancer, arthritis and Crohn’s.
Despite her condition, which also includes vertigo-like brain fogs, she does not appear bitter nor self-pitying.
Saying simply: “There are an awful lot of people who are worse than me. I regard my MS as an inconvenience, albeit a big one though.”
Her petition – readers can sign via Devolve the power to allow medicinal use of cannabis to the Scottish Parliament – Petitions – has now attracted more than 2500 names.
It seeks to get devolved power for Scotland on medicinal use of cannabis.
If it hits 10,000 then it gets Westminster government attention. And that will probably make Laura extremely happy.
Jennifer Dunn said: “We don’t want the campaign to end here.
“If anyone has a condition that would benefit from legal access to medicinal cannabis, or who has a relative who does, we’d urge them to sign and share the petition.”
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The SNP Activist On Why She’d Legalise Cannabis In A Bid To Tackle Multiple Sclerosis
Author: Stephen Houston
Contact: 0141 309 3000
Photo Credit: Euan McCall
Website: Daily Record