At 99-years-old, Port Kembla's Mona Parsons has some health problems, including chronic pain, arthritis, trouble sleeping and depression which has been caused by the loss of her central vision and hearing.
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But in the past few months, she has experienced some relief, after her GP suggested she try out medicinal cannabis.
"Mum's biggest issue is macular degeneration, which means she has no central vision, but overall for 99, she is managing pretty well," Ms Parson's daughter Jan O'Dea said.
"She gets around her own home, and when it's sunny I can take her out for a walk along the beach, and she can walk about 800m to a kilometre with her waling frame.
"But she has very bad chronic sleeping issues - and sleeping tablets aren't good at her age, because falls are a big issue at this age and you don't want her to be groggy the next day."
After she had exhausted many other treatments, Ms Parsons' GP Dr Romesh Sarvanandan suggested she try medical marijuana.
"She's been on it now for about eight months, and initially a small amount worked extremely well - she's now on a dose when she goes to bed, and then if she gets up in the night she can have another dose," Ms O'Dea said.
"It is helping, she's managing to have at least four hours when she goes to bed, and then will doze on and off for the rest of the night."
Ms O'Dea said the cannabis was also helping to treat her mother's mood and depression.
"Mum was a huge reader and used to do lots of crosswords and because of her sight she can't do this anymore, so before she started on the medicinal cannabis she was often saying things like 'I've had enough' but since then, her mental attitude has been improved," he said.
"So it's really helped her mood and sleep, and she also feels her pain has improved as well,"
Dr Sarvanandan is in the process of opening the region's second cannabis clinic at Warrawong General Practice, because of the huge demand he has seen for medicinal cannabis.
"There is about a four month waiting list at the other clinic at Dapto, and the next nearest one is in Sydney," he said.
"I've got a lot patients in this area who have chronic conditions with pain, like arthritis, endometriosis, irritable bowel, epilepsy and those kind of things, so there are a lot of people on pain medications and this is one way of trying to make that better."
Dr Sarvanandan became a Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved prescriber of medicinal cannabis about 16 months ago, and says he currently has about 40 patients using the drug.
"I've had people say to me that they didn't know I prescribed medicinal cannabis, or who have asked for a referral to another cannabis clinic, so I wanted to open the Illawarra Cannabis Clinic to help those people and raise awareness," he said.
"Obviously this is not for everyone, but this way they can come and have a chat about it and see whether it is for them."
He says he decided to become an approved prescriber because he was seeing lots of patients using opioids and other heavy pain medication, with some of them still experiencing pain despite using high levels of these drugs.
"[Cannabis] is also quite good for anxiety and depression, so for people who are using antidepressants and want to come off them, or where it is not controlled, this can be an adjunct," he said.
"I've had one patient who was on really heavy pain medication and anti-psychotics, and it took me about 15 months, but now she is completely off everything."
The federal government legalised medicinal cannabis in 2016, however the products are still tightly regulated in Australia.
Unlike marijuana for recreational use, medicinal cannabis is usually taken in the form of an oil or capsules, containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD).
Prescriptions have grown significantly in recent years, with most doctors able to prescribe it on a case-by-case basis by applying to the TGA.
For instance, Ms Parsons pays $210 for a 50ml bottle of oil, which her daughter said only lasted less than a month.
"For most people of this age group, that is quite expensive," Ms O'Dea said.
Ms Parsons holds a Department of Veterans affairs card because she was in the army during the Second World War, which means she can apply to the department to pay for her treatments.
However, this has been a slow process, with the family initially asked to provide back-up documentation from a geriatrician - who would not do so as she wasn't familiar with the treatment. Now, they have applied with support from Dr Sarvanandan and are still awaiting an outcome.
Dr Sarvanandan said he would like to see a push towards making medicinal cannabis available on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS).
"I'm finding with a lot of my patients that it does help, but a lot of people in this area can't afford it, so they might be one all these other pain medications instead," he said.
"I think there should be a push to get it available on the PBS, because if you've tried everything and it's not working, then it can be worth giving [medicinal cannabis] a go."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
