CAMPAIGNING mothers, including one from Hartley Wintney, are pleading for support to make available a “life-saving” drug for people who suffer with cystic fibrosis.

In just ten days, more than 100,000 people signed the petition on the government’s website calling for the drug Orkambi to be made available to all cystic fibrosis (CF) suffers.

One woman who has signed the petition and is an active campaigner to get the government’s support is Hartley Wintney resident Catherine Sheahan.

Both of Mrs Sheahan’s 14-year-old twins Elizabeth and William suffer from cystic fibrosis and she said if this groundbreaking drug is made available it will make a real difference to their lives.

The 46-year-old said: “Orkami won’t cure CF as there are so many different strands.

“What it does is it takes away that life-limiting aspect to the disease. It is available now, but it is only administered when it is too late and has already affected a person’s lungs. We need to be getting to children a lot soon.”

Currently, the drug is only offered to patients on the NHS on “compassionate grounds”.

Mrs Sheahan added: “It is licensed in America and a lot of other countries across Europe including Greece so there is a sense of we are falling behind.”

The petition, titled ‘Make Orkambi available on the NHS for people with cystic fibrosis’, now has more than 114,000 signatures and will be debated by Parliament on March 19.

It is one of just 12 petitions out of 4,199 on the government’s petition website that have made it to this stage.

As part of the campaign Mrs Sheahan, along with Portsmouth mothers Gemma Weir and Michelle Franks who launched the petition, and many other braved the Beast from the East to protest outside the Houses of Parliament.

Mrs Sheahan’s daughter Elizabeth wrote a letter to Theresa May telling how the drug would benefit her and her brother.