All East Kilbride boy Cole Thomson wants for Christmas is to be healthy and happy.
And thanks to big-hearted businessmen and women across Lanarkshire the inspirational youngster's Christmas wish has come true securing his miracle medicine for an entire year.
In just five weeks since the launch of Cole's Christmas Wish fundraising drive, in partnership with Equi's Ice Cream, an incredible 36 businesses have each pledged £500 to cover the monumental £18,000 annual cost of the 10-year-old's private medical cannabis prescription.
Due to his rare and drug resistant focal epilepsy, Cole lost a huge chunk of his childhood suffering up to 20 seizures a day for six years.
But since taking a daily dose of the cannabis oil Bedrolite he is seizure-free and has gone from being confined to a wheelchair with limited speech to launching his own YouTube channel and training in taekwondo.
However Cole's family are finding it an impossible task to raise the £1500 per month needed to keep their son alive.
Despite the "clear evidence" in Cole's case a four-year battle for government funding has resulted in nothing.
Hailing the success of her latest campaign for financial support, Cole's mum Lisa Quarrell told Lanarkshire Live she is "so grateful" to everyone who has helped her in her time of need.
She said: "It’s our very own Christmas miracle! I cannot believe we have managed to achieve a full year's money in just over a month, also the support has been incredible with another three events in 2023 planned to raise money for Cole’s medicine.
"I’m blown away and so, so grateful to David Equi and all the businesses who have signed up to Cole’s Christmas Wish Campaign.
"I have spent four years having to find the money every month that keeps my son alive. Currently Cole’s oil costs £1500 every month and that amount will only increase as Cole gets older and bigger.
"I can’t explain how difficult it is to live with such a responsibility knowing if you don’t get it what could happen to my wee boy.
"I get embarrassed having to continually beg strangers to help me but have no alternative because that just doesn’t bear thinking about.
"Cole is very charming, he’s a character and everyone who meets him sees that, but he’s fighting a battle every day with his health, education and social capabilities.
"This money allows me to focus on the other battles and the biggest one being the NHS and governments to make this medicine available free through the NHS."
Thanking every sponsor for making his wish come true, Cole added: "Thank you everyone for helping me get the money for my medicine. I am so happy that my mum can have the best Christmas with me and my big brother Dylan."
For the last decade, the East Kilbride News has followed Cole's heartbreaking journey as his family desperately search for a cure for his paralysing epileptic seizures.
Cole receives the cannabinoid Bedrolite privately as his NHS consultant is not allowed to prescribe unlicensed medical cannabis due to a lack of robust evidence of the drug’s safety, quality or efficacy.
Drug laws are reserved to Westminster but Lisa argues that there is more the Scottish Government can do with the powers they do have.
The Scottish Government continually say that while they have “enormous sympathy” for Cole Thomson and his family, the regulation, licensing and supply of Cannabis Based Products for Medicinal Use (CBPMs) remain reserved to the UK Government and it has “no power” to alter this.
Thanking all the businesses for coming together to support the campaign, managing director of Equi’s Ice Cream, David Equi, who came up with the fundraising idea, commented: "I want to thank all the businesses that have banded together to promote this essential campaign to save Cole.
"I thought it would be good to raise the plight of Lisa and Cole's journey specifically within the business community as I knew lots of them would love to help such a genuine cause.
"I also feel that it would be remiss if I didn’t highlight the real community spirit of the East Kilbride News, and specifically Andrea Lambrou, for their continued highlighting of Cole’s fight for survival for over nine years now.
"Lisa has had to ignore her health and wellbeing for the last four years as she has been forced to constantly fundraise to make sure each month her son has the medicine he needs to survive another month.
"Lisa needs the help and backing of people with a range of different skills sets and positions of authority to help her fight for her son's prescription to be paid by the Scottish Government.
"The community goodwill and warm feeling that’s been created by the businesses rallying around Lisa and Cole this Christmas seems to me to be like East Kilbride's very own version of 'It’s a Wonderful Life."
Thanks go to all of Cole's sponsors including those who wished to remain anonymous.
They are: David Equi of Equi’s Ice Cream; Clearway2Drive; Mark Hutton Master Hutton Fitness; Tracy and Thomas Miller of Millers Edinburgh; Craig Smith, Greystone Group; Enhance Healthcare; Willie Haughey; Alex McGrath, Pro signs; Mo Raziq, Mo’s Premier Store Blantyre; Nasreen Younas, Premier Store Hamilton; Lesley Callendar, Eastwood Electrical Ltd; James Fleming, Redhurst Row Consulting; Fiona McDerment, Pulse Change Consultancy; Pacini's Greenhills Chip Shop, James and Claire Speers; Karen Beaton, KB Accounting Services; William Neilly, Aristan Bakery; Protec Facilities; The BT Partnership, John and Sandra Beattie; ECG Facilities Service; Andy MacLachlan; Food2Market; Brendan McNulty, KPP Glasgow Accountant; Allan Steel, Steel Groundswork; Allander Security; MAQ Air Conditioning Ltd; Gordon McCulloch GSS; James Mortimer; Sep Marini, Tony Macaroni; Bobby and Laura Paton, Energy Made Greener; Chris Wilson, Sharles Accountants Hamilton; Mark Keane, Kiltane Cashmere Retailer Royal Mile; Barry Wood, Turnkey.
If you would like to support Cole visit Cole's Campaign on Facebook.
*Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.
