When Jack Tolley left home to go to university, he thought it would be the next chapter of his life.
Even after he was diagnosed in his first year with severe epilepsy, he knew regular medication should allow him to manage it.
But shortages of those key medicines left him struggling – “it should just be so simple to get hold of” – and were among the main reasons why he had to leave university and come back home.
“I really struggled with leaving university because of the friendships that I’d made there, because of the people that I had to leave behind, because of this lack of medications,” he admitted.
Tolley’s epilepsy is very severe – on one occasion he had to be put into an induced coma by doctors after multiple seizures.
To manage it, the 20-year-old takes 17 tablets every day, of four different types of medicines.
When he was at university in Bournemouth, a major issues for him was having to travel between pharmacies to hunt down medication due to shortages.
Unable to drive due to his epilepsy, he said: “I rely on public transport to get to these places but you’re also fighting that with the risk of having a seizure.”