A Pembrokeshire mum-of-three has said that using medical cannabis, on a legal prescription, has made huge differences to her health conditions and way of life.

Jemma Jones, suffers from arthritis, fibromyalgia degenerative disc disease and frieghbergs disease of left metatarsals. For the last decade she has lived with chronic pain, taking a cocktail of drugs to try and find some relief.

“For more than ten years I have been upping my medication, changing it, trying to get something that worked,” she said.

In April of this year she was admitted to A&E as the pain had got so bad. She left with a bottle of Oramorph and decided things had to change.

“Coming out of hospital I thought: ‘I give up’. I didn’t want to keep taking the medication just to get through the days. I was really contemplating life,” she said.

“I was getting addicted to taking the medication and relying on the tablets. I started looking on Google for alternatives and put something on Facebook.”

Following her Facebook post, Shane Pearce from Gr0w in Dew Street Haverfordwest got in touch. He had been researching cannabis and hemp derived medication after his mother had used it successfully to treat ailments.

Jemma started to use oils and balms produced by former Pembroke RFC player Dominic Day.

She then became one of the first 3,000 people in the UK to get a legal medical cannabis prescription.

Jemma is prescribed medicinal CBD for inflammation and THC for pain, these come in a concentrated liquid.

She described the effect the medicine has on her arthritis as ‘like I have swallowed a bottle of Vaseline’.

“Now I am able to get up and help my children, who are also my carers, more than I have been able to before. Before I was struggling with everything, getting up, getting dressed,” she said.

Jemma is also prescribed cannabis flower which she smokes, without tobacco, using a pipe. She said she is using the legal cannabis derived medication to wean herself off the addiction to the pharmaceuticals.

Jemma’s private prescription came from the Sapphire Medical Group following a thorough eligibility assessment.

“I want everybody else to know the true legality of [medical] cannabis,” said Jemma. “There’s not enough knowledge out there. These options are out there.

“If I hadn’t known about this I’m not sure where I would be. I’m not sure I would still be here. I have a lifestyle now. I hadn’t had that for many many years.”

Jemma talks using medical cannabis on her TikTok account Peggy Powers.