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A three-year-old boy with severe epilepsy has been asked to leave his pre-school for using cannabis oil for treatment.

Tristan Forde, 3, from Dunmanway, Co Cork was the first person in Ireland to be legally allowed used cannabis for medicinal purposes.

The youngster, who suffers from Dravet Syndrome, was enrolled in Naíonra Bheanntraí by his mother Yvonne Cahalane last month.

However, Yvonne received a registered letter to her home this week stating there was no longer a place available to Tristan at the preschool in Bantry.

In discussions with the school previous to the letter, teachers had stated that they were “afraid to deal with him” if he was to have a seizure.

Ms Cahalane said one teacher told her if Tristan was to have a seizure “she would not give him the cannabis as it was a controlled drug.”

The school also reportedly requested that Yvonne would sit outside the room during class time in case something was to happen to Tristan.

Ms Cahalane told the Patricia Messinger show on C103 that she was upset at the decision to deny her son a preschool place.

“He was thrilled to go back to school. We are really disappointed. If he was sick we wouldn’t even bring him in. Epilepsy Ireland came in and provided training. We had an advanced paramedic come in and provide training. We signed an indemnity form.

"We signed emergency protocol. We asked them to write down a list of issues and the top of it was the cannabis oil. There is a stigma with his medicine. They said they were afraid to deal with him.

"That is why we provided as much training and information as we possibly could. There was nothing more we could possibly give them.”

Tristan lived in Colorado in the United States for over a year with his mother Yvonne Cahalane.

She decided to relocate in order to administer the medicinal cannabis to her son in a bid to help reduce the number and severity of his seizures.

Yvonne moved back to West Cork recently after she received a guarantee from the Health Minister that her administering of cannabis oil to her son was legal.

Ms Cahalane says she hopes to get a preschool place for Tristan in another school in the coming weeks. However, she is fearful of receiving similar feedback from other schools.

Meanwhile, management at the preschool issued a statement in which they said it was their policy “not to comment on such sensitive matters in a public forum.”

Yvonne says Tristan is pretty much seizure free with the use of medicinal cannabis. She is ecstatic that her son’s application for the use of medicinal marijuana has been approved. She directly applied to Minister for Health, Simon Harris for the licence.

Ms Cahalane said she is thrilled to be able to be of assistance to families in similar situations.

“Others will have this option now. They need to know, and be aware, that they have an option now instead of considering to self medicate. They can go to a doctors and discuss this with them, to work with them, to go ahead and make their application. Tristan has never been hospitalised since he started cannabis treatment. He is doing great and is very happy.”

Prior to Tristan’s cannabis treatment his condition was so severe that his parents were left with little choice but to put a helmet on him.

Yvonne and Tristan were among a small group of expats in Colorado, also known as “international medical marijuana refugees.”

Tristan was diagnosed in late 2014 with Dravet Syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilespy. He was suffering up to twenty seizures a day, with some of the more severe seizures lasting an hour.

Yvonne adds that the medication to keep his seizures under control – CBD oil and THCA, both derived from the marijuana plant, have transformed his life.