Families of children with severe epilepsy in the UK fear the cannabis oil that keeps their children seizure-free could run out within months, after the Dutch company that makes it went bankrupt.

Bedrocan, the Netherlands-based producer of the medicine Bedrolite, was declared bankrupt in October. The company has told the BBC that stocks remain available in the Netherlands and efforts are under way to restart the business, but families say they have been told the Dutch government is holding back exports to protect supplies for its own patients.

Bedrolite is a specific formulation of cannabis oil, and the families who rely on it say another cannabis product would not have the same effect. It is believed the UK has about six months' supply left, and it is not clear what will happen when that runs out.

A boy who was having 150 seizures a week

Alfie, 15, from Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire, has been seizure-free for eight years since he began taking Bedrolite. Before the treatment, he was suffering 150 seizures a week and spending three to five days in hospital every week.

His mother, Hannah Deacon, campaigned at Downing Street in 2018 to win the right for him to be prescribed the medicine on the NHS. She died suddenly in 2025, 52 days after being diagnosed with cancer, and her mother Maggie has taken on Alfie's case in her daughter's memory.

"Alfie wouldn't be with us if he didn't have this medicine, that's the reality," Maggie told the BBC. She said that before the treatment, life for the family "was just living in a crisis. It wasn't a life, it was just awful." She warned that stopping the medicine and starting it again does not always work, and that without it her grandson could face heavy weekly steroid doses giving him only two or three days of respite, with no school and no football.

'A cliff-edge condition'

Louis Petit, 23, from the City of London, began having seizures in 2016, when he was 12. He has been seizure-free for six years on Bedrolite and now works as an artist after gaining a first-class degree in fine art.

His mother, Emma Matthews, said coming off the oil could kill her son. "It's a cliff-edge condition, if it's stopped, you could die that night," she said. Louis had previously tried to come off the oil and his seizures returned immediately.

The Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society says seven UK prescriptions are affected. The issue was raised in the House of Commons on 15 October, when MPs heard that one family's supply is expected to run out in December. A UK manufacturer, Target Healthcare, has told families it has enough stock for about six months, but the longer-term supply remains uncertain.

What the government says

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the department recognised the importance of uninterrupted access to medicines for patients with severe, drug-resistant epilepsy. "Access will remain in the short term for NHS and private UK patients, with sufficient stock currently available to support continued treatment into the coming months," the spokesperson said, adding that officials were working with the UK supplier and the Dutch government to see whether additional stock could be made available.

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who represents Gower and has led the campaign for medicinal cannabis in Parliament, said she had written to the health minister asking the government to secure the supply of Bedrolite. She also wants ministers to do more to allow companies in the UK to produce their own products, saying: "It's not beyond the wit of government to be able to develop a similar product in the UK."

Medicinal cannabis has been legally available on prescription in the UK since November 2018, but access through the NHS remains extremely limited and most patients rely on private prescriptions. Bedrocan's troubles followed the end of its supply arrangement with the Dutch Office of Medicinal Cannabis and delays to Dutch regulatory reform. For the families who depend on Bedrolite, the question is whether a new source can be secured before the remaining stock runs out.