Alfie Dingley: Cannabis plea boy back in hospital Published duration 3 March 2018

image copyright MAGGIE DEACON/PA WIRE image caption Alfie Dingley has suffered a cluster of seizures and is being treated in hospital

A six-year-old boy whose parents are fighting for permission to treat his epilepsy with cannabis is back in hospital.

Alfie Dingley is being treated with intravenous steroids after experiencing a cluster of seizures.

It is the second time he has been readmitted since returning from the Netherlands where he was given cannabis oil, which is illegal in the UK.

Alfie's mother Hannah Deacon has appealed to the Home Office and Prime Minister Theresa May to "act to help my beloved son survive and have the best life he can".

She said: "We need your urgent compassion and action now. Please don't stand by and let my son suffer or die unnecessarily.

"To see him in distress in hospital with his life in danger yet again is traumatic and heartbreaking.

"My son is suffering."

image copyright MAGGIE DEACON/PA WIRE image caption Alfie's mother Hannah Deacon has appealed to the government to act

Cannabis oil is available for medical purposes throughout Europe, including in the Netherlands where Alfie and his family spent five months paying for treatment.

Ms Deacon, from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, believes the medical cannabis products "are the only ones which have worked" to reduce her son's seizures - which occur between 20 and 30 times a day - in number, duration and severity.

The Home Office has previously said it would consider a medical cannabis trial as an option for Alfie.

image copyright HANNAH DEACON image caption Alfie and his family spent five months in the Netherlands paying for treatment