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Former health minister Michelle O'Neill has vowed to introduce a new law in Northern Ireland legalising medicinal cannabis.

After meeting Charlotte Caldwell, whose son Billy is medicated with the drug, she has agreed to travel to Dublin on Monday to make the battle for access to the drugs an all-Ireland matter.

Charlotte said: "Michelle O'Neill called me to tell me her plans. She says as from Monday she will made it her work to push to introduce Billy's Law.

"I'm delighted she has seen the sense in this.

"With Dr James Linden able and willing to legally provide cannabis oil as a food supplement to any family who needs it from Monday, it means we have made history and for once it's for the better.

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"I will walk through Dublin Airport with more confidence now knowing that we have huge backing from politicians.

"After all the worry and pain that we have been through and after all the trauma Billy has been through, I have finally taken a deep breath.

"And Michelle O'Neill has also said she will fight to ensure that Billy is given an extra contractual referral which means his treatment will be covered by the NHS. And she feels she can do this because he was turned down for treatment by every doctor we saw in Northern Ireland.

"It would not be possible for every child to get this but we proved this treatment could keep Billy alive with a good quality of life and no one would help us in his home country. So we had to leave just to keep him alive.

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'I often asked myself why Billy had been chosen to go through so much. Perhaps this is why. Perhaps his fight was to be the fight for all children who need this help.

"Dr James Linden has found a way to legally provide medicinal cannabis and he's my hero.

"But I have another hero; my son Billy who at 11 years old has just managed to change the world."