No-deal Brexit would be a real threat to my friend’s life

Support for a patient that has been diagnosed with diabetes. Photo: Peter Byrne / PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

MAGDALENA WILLIAMS writes about the risk to live a no-deal Brexit poses, and says it is being overlooked by those advocating it.

There has been endless talk about the threat to the economy of any Brexit. But other aspects which have been ignored need even more urgent consideration: A close friend of mine is a Type 2 diabetic who is managing to maintain normal glucose levels and thus ordinary life with daily insulin which is not made in the UK. Our alarm bells began ringing the moment Theresa May told us that supplies of medication might be disrupted.

This is a threat to the life of anyone being kept alive by medicines from the EU, like her insulin (98% EU import), or cancer radioisotopes (EURATOM), epilepsy medicines, asthma inhalers, kidney dialysis, and the list goes on.

No-deal needs to be taken off the table in order to preserve life. In my view this has the makings of a humanitarian disaster which people who want to leave the EU don’t want to see or don’t seem to care about.

The government is fobbing us off about stockpiling but many of these vital medicines are perishable with short shelf lives. Over the past weeks it has become clear that the UK is not prepared for a no-deal. MPs should be asking some very serious questions on this issue which affects millions of patients around the UK.

Magdalena Williams

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