My six year old son Alfie has a very rare genetic epilepsy condition called PCDH19. It causes clusters of seizures which are unresponsive to almost any medications. He can have up to 30 violent seizures a day. It’s so severe that he had 3000 seizures in one year and ended up in hospital 48 times.The only legal medication in the UK that helps are steroids. But they are toxic to the body, especially when used regularly. If we continue giving them to Alfie there is a high likelihood he will develop psychosis or his organs will fail. Last year, in desperation, we travelled to Holland where doctors treated him with cannabis oil. Miraculously, with a dose of three drops a day, Alfie didn’t have a seizure for 27 days. He's only had 2 seizures in the last two months. Dutch doctors say that cannabis oil could get his seizures down from 30 a day to twenty a year. My baby went from a death sentence, to the prospect of a normal life, with school, friends and fun. But that prospect could be taken away now we are back in the UK because here the use of medical cannabis is illegal. I don’t want to have to break the law so I am pleading with the UK Government to make an exception for Alfie and grant his doctor license to prescribe medical cannabis so Alfie can live life carefree, without constant seizures and ploughing of steroids. Making an exception for Alfie doesn't have to open the floodgates - Alfie is the only boy in the UK that has this condition. We are working with End Our Pain (https://endourpain.org/ to get a better life for Alfie and hope this will lead to help for other children who need to try this medication. To legalise the use of medical cannabis would enable the quality and consistency of products to be properly controlled, would create a new industry and more jobs, raise taxes, lower crime rates and result in fewer people struggling in hospitals to be well, or being preyed on by unscrupulous online sellers. We assess the saving to the NHS from Alfie’s case alone to be over £100,000 and up to 150 paediatric bed days. It’s a no-brainer! Getting Alfie treatment could be the first step to making medical cannabis accessible to others in need. We urgently need the public to make noise to make that happen. Alfie has been through more than most people go through in a lifetime. He deserves to have a wonderful life full of joy. I just want Amber Rudd and Jeremy Hunt to understand this isn’t about the wholesale legalisation of Cannabis. This is about weekly trips to A&E, watching my son have seizures, watching him turn purple, and praying that he lives to see another day. Please sign and share this petition and help me make our family’s only wish come true. And please like our Facebook page Alfie's Hope for all updates on Alfie's journey. Thank you x

** Campaign success! Albert has now been granted treatment. For more info, please check the update below and keep posted on developments on https://mobile.twitter.com/quiline I am confirming how I'm going to spend the money raised for his treatment as soon as possible with all relevant parties. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone that has supported this campaign. WE DID IT!** #ActionforAlbert Albert Thompson*, 63 years old, has lived in London for 44 years. He has prostate cancer. After major surgery, he arrived for his first radiotherapy session to be taken aside and told that unless he can prove he is legally entitled to live in the UK he will have to pay the full £54,000 for his treatment upfront. For 3 decades, Albert has paid taxes to the British Government. He arrived from Jamaica as a teenager. He has no money and he needs our help. That’s why I’m calling for the Home Office to deal with Albert’s status in the UK so his treatment can be approved right away. Cancer doesn’t wait. Having been a primary carer for loved ones who have had cancer, I know that it is expensive, frightening and depressing. People who do not have a lot of savings or support from elsewhere struggle massively financially, and Albert has been unable to work for some years now due to cancer so has nothing. Even with appropriate support, cancer is a lonely and terrifying journey. I can't imagine the despair that this man must be feeling right now. This is part of a much wider issue too, of people who originally came from Commonwealth countries now not being recognised as legal citizens - despite living in our country for many, many years and contributing in the same way we do. Let's stand up for their rights - and stand up to the increasingly harsh landscape that the Home Office is creating for innocent people that are relying on their country's support at the hardest times in their lives. Please sign and share this petition. *Not his real name Original Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/10/denied-free-nhs-cancer-care-left-die-home-office-commonwealth 

The UK has been my home for over 10 years where I’ve been training to be a doctor. I’m now just 5 months away from completing my GP training - but that came to grinding halt last year because the Home Office refused me Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).I was refused my visa based on an honest oversight - my request was "18 days late". This is because the appointment, which I paid for, was the earliest available one throughout the UK. All the is despite living legally on visas for the last 10 years, whilst I studied and started medical training in Manchester, I was then refused because of an honest oversight.  I have already appealed this decision already and the judge sided with me and my case upheld based on Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.  Sadly, this is not the end of the story, the Home Office applied to overturn this. In the meantime, I’m not allowed to work and have been living off my savings and kindness of my friends. That’s why I’m calling on the Home Office to drop the appeal. At a time when the NHS is struggling to train and recruit GPs, I find it absolutely ridiculous that I am on the cusp of becoming a GP. I have given the best years of my life to the NHS, toiling relentlessly through nights and weekends for many years, paying my taxes and contributing to wider society - sadly right now,  all this counts for nothing, and the Home Office are now treating me as an illegal immigrant, having confiscated my passports and University Degree. Many countries would be happy to have a doctor work for their health service, especially somebody who is locally trained, but here I face endless persecution by the Home Office, having to suffer the indignity of being treated like an unwanted intruder, despite having lived here since September 2007. I am broken, and I don't know how much longer I can take this. I want to be a doctor here in the UK. Please help me by signing.

My name is Elizabeth, and I am one of the 1400 Rotherham 'Survivors' now estimated to be 2800 and I am trying to stop the early release of Murabek Ali, and to make the Police and Councils accountable for totally ignoring thousands of vulnerable girls, who like me, have suffered horrific abuse, trafficking, beatings, race hate, and gang rapes, at the hands of violent grooming gangs now operating ALL over Britain. Less than 1% have ever been prosecuted, therefore most survivors live in constant fear as their rapists/abusers have never even been arrested! Those that are prosecuted serve ridiculously short sentences. Something has to be done! Mubarek Ali was sentenced to 22 years in 2012 along with his brother Ahdel (who was jailed 18 years) for a raft of sexual offences including pimping out young girls many as young as 12 to workers at a curry house for £150 sex sessions.  During the brothers' trial the court heard that the two men systematically groomed young girls for after hour sex sessions at the restaurant. Mubarek Ali was convicted of four charges of controlling child prostitution, two of trafficking in the UK for sexual exploitation and a charge of causing child prostitution. Judge Patrick Thomas QC said the brothers' motives were "squalid, demeaning and selfish". He said the brothers were both "cold hearted and cynical" and "present significant danger to the public" and told them that they had shown "no remorse or regret". Ali will be released in November, because of the misleading way sentences are served and because of changes to the sentencing laws in 2003 allowing automatic release after serving just HALF their sentence and without a parole board! However this should NOT apply to dangerous sex offenders. The system also totally failed to inform victims of his release after serving just 5 years.  His victims in Telford who gave evidence in this horrific child sexual exploitation case five years ago are living in fear of his release.  CSE victims are so often overlooked and let down. The custodial sentences given for this horrific crime are disgracefully short and need to be reviewed. Ali has served just 5 years for horrific rape and abuse of young girls, his victims will have a 'life sentence' of horrific memories and anxiety.  We would also like a criminal investigation to be launched by the government into Police forces and Councils throughout Britain who have stood back and allowed these men to traffic, beat, gang rape and destroy the lives of so many girls for decades. An example needs to be set to stop these grooming gangs, this is also RACIALLY MOTIVATED HATE CRIME against mainly white girls, they target their victims due to the fact they consider white girls worthless and slags, therefore it should also be treated as race hate crime, and any prison sentences should reflect this fact. These monsters deliberately target vulnerable girls as young as 12 giving them gifts, food, and plying them with alcohol, and forcing them to take drugs, for the purpose of trafficking them for abuse, they control beat, humiliate, degrade and regularly gang raping them, keeping them silenced by use of threats, violence and intimidation. Longer sentences are served by many who commit fraud. LET THAT SINK IN A MOMENT!!! Britains government and law system believe that FRAUD is a worse crime than RAPE! The law desperately needs to change, as the innocent victims of these vile abusers are the ones put on trial for being raped and abused! Read https://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/may/19/lawyers-oxford-abuse-ring the absolutely disgusting way that Ali's victims were treated in court during the trial by aggressive unsympathetic defence lawyers  Since the Telford, Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford cases the grooming gang problem has got much worse, with lower police numbers, political correctness and fear of upsetting communities still known to be a major factor as to why it has become such a widespread problem. Alexis Jay's report http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1407/independent_inquiry_cse_in_rotherham highlights the failings to CSE victims in Rotherham from 1997-2013 This Panarama documentary from 2015 https://youtu.be/Wgi4b1X2dd0 highlights the absolutely disgraceful way the police and authorities dealt with the appalling child abuse in Rotherham. These grooming gangs are said to be operating in more and more towns throughout Britain with impunity, the government should set up a national task force and stop this horrific abuse of our girls.  2016 Theresa May promised she would denounce citizenship and deport any evil grooming gang members with dual citizenship, but that is not happening.  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sex-abuse-gangs-face-being-7444956 https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2017/07/19/sexual-exploitation-victims-living-in-fear-say-telford-mp-/#PUtazzRTi3TmhKKf.99

Dr Jennifer Wexler has worked at the British Museum as a Bronze Age archaeologist for four years and is married to my colleague Dr Sam Nixon. He excavates on some of the most exciting sites in Africa. The Home Office have said Jennifer must leave the UK and I’m calling for her to be allowed to stay. Jennifer is originally from the USA and the Home Office say that her application to remain has been rejected because she has spent too much time abroad. This time though was principally for her archaeological research, which was approved by the Home Office via a series of highly-skilled visas. By leaving, she would be separated from her husband of 3 years. The Home Office suggest that he also leaves the country with her, even though Sam is a British citizen, with no work permit for the US. The UK has been Jennifer’s home for over 11 years. Not only has her Indefinite Leave to Remain been rejected but so has her appeal. Her lawyer said she was “bewildered” by the Home Office’s refusal. And Jeremy Corbyn is also supporting Jennifer’s case by writing to the Home Office, saying the decision puts UK’s research reputation at risk. He said: “Dr Wexler is an obvious asset to the UK due to her expertise and education” and “This is far from a one-off case: there are many academics who have to travel overseas to properly conduct their research and the Home Office should be more flexible.” Archaeologists around the world are shocked and appalled that Jennifer and Sam are both being asked to leave the UK. We would end up losing two highly valuable members of the UK research and academic community, who contribute to UK society in entirely positive ways. Please sign and share this petition, so that the Home Office can see how many people consider Jennifer, and her British husband Sam, valued members of the United Kingdom and help keep them in the UK. Thank you! #KeepJenniferinUK Guardian article on Jennifer’s case: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/03/corbyn-visa-policy-puts-uks-global-reputation-research-risk BBC London News coverage: https://youtu.be/D39kL5ZaSRw

Growing up in the forgotten areas of East London, some of my closest childhood friends have either been stabbed or involved in the stabbing of someone else. I felt powerless back then. I thought I was too young and ill-equipped to really do anything that could make a difference. Violent crime is making headlines right now, but for me has always been there. Such violence was the norm growing up and it shouldn’t have been. A decade after leaving secondary school, the problem is still there, and terrifyingly the data says that the problem is growing. The night before I wrote this (5/4/18) six people were stabbed in London in 90 minutes. Seeing the recent increase in violence and murders around London shows  that not enough has been done to improve the lives of the forgotten people in our city. This is not just a London issue, violent crime is affecting many other cities in the UK. It feels like to those in power, some people’s lives don’t mean as much.  Another death from knife or gun crime is treated as “just another statistic” and in doing so some are desensitized to the real meaning or gravity of another person's death and the direct impact these crimes have on the lives of a victim's family or the indirect impact it has on our society as a whole. It feels like authorities have forgotten the people dying are people’s brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, colleagues, cousins, friends. Victims like Iuliana Tudos, Kwabena Nelson, Leyla Mtumwa are real people who have had their lives stolen from them. After the sharp rise in acid attacks last year, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd produced an urgent action plan to tackle the problem. Right now, it is knife and gun crime in London that is killing and destroying people’s lives, we urgently need the authorities to step up and produce a similar plan to tackle it. It doesn’t feel like the Mayor’s Office or the Home Office are doing anything to help. And I have had enough. I have started this petition to urge Sadiq Khan and Amber Rudd to work together, and produce an urgent action plan for how they are going to stop stabbings and gun crime in our capital. This week Sadiq Khan has been using the hashtag #LondonNeedsYouAlive. If he really believes that I want to see him produce some urgent, concrete solutions. Please join me by signing this petition. Together we can make our voices heard. #LondonNeedsUSalive

Globally, we throw away 500 million straws a day and according to PlasticOceans.org, we dump 8 million tonnes of single-use plastic in our oceans yearly. Plastic cutlery and straws have an incredibly short usage time, yet take several 100 years to break down and decompose when they end up in our oceans. No marine species are safe from the toxic impact of the plastic that is heavily polluting our oceans. Straws and cutlery often end up in the digestive systems and in the noses and throats of our marine life, ultimately killing them and contributing to the depletion of already struggling species of fish and marine mammals. Multiple studies have also shown that we too are consuming the plastic fragments ingested by fish. Starbucks, McDonald's and Subway are giants in their fields. They have the power to lead the way in industry-wide change when it comes to the wasteful and toxic throwing away of hundreds of millions of pieces of single-use plastic DAILY. When they make the change, others will be encouraged to follow. If smaller, independent coffee and fast-food stores are able to use paper straws and biodegradable alternatives to plastic cutlery, huge companies like Starbucks and McDonald's most definitely can too. It is thought that if we continue on our current trajectory, by 2050 our oceans could hold more plastic than they do fish. We have to make a change NOW. 

I am not a politician nor a human rights activist. I'm just a scared mum. Ranting on Facebook won't get our voices heard. Im not a racist, I know the majority of Muslims are just as horrified as everyone else.  Our country is being held at gun point by the minority of Muslims with an extreme view, living in our country expecting us to live by their extreme laws and innocent people are being savagely killed as a result. The fear all those innocent victims must of felt in their dying moments haunts me.  My 13 year old daughter is scared to go on holiday. When I take my children out for the day I can't relax because I'm constantly on the look out for security, emergency exits and crazy people with rucksacks or weapons! I find myself constantly planning an emergency get away, just in case.  We are a nation living in fear! The terror suspect watch list has around 3,000 suspects, most have a British passport. We need to take these people off of our streets the second they give MI5 reasonable cause for concern. The watch list is clearly not working. Research shows to fulfil 24 hour surveillance on just one person of interest would take around 20 people, that, on the basis of 3,000 terror suspects being watched, will take 60,000 members of staff.  I propose we: 1. TPins (tags) have only been issued 7 times this year, Although an estimated 350 suspected fighters travelled back to the U.K. from ISIS, why haven't they all been issued a tag? I think ALL minor (if there is such a thing) Threats such as a suspects internet history, hate speech or travel history should be reasonable cause for the suspect to be issued a TPin. 2. Any person inciting, actively and publicly speaking of hate towards the British people, their morals, laws or the way they live or acting in a threatening manor i.e. Posting hateful propagander /threats to hurt, damage or kill should be deported or detained. So far what we are doing is clearly not working. Enough is enough, it's time for change.  Some key questions that have been raised are, where do we detain them? How do we fund this? If you agree with this petition or have similar questions then sign the petition and let's get this into parliament so it can at least be debated. Lets get our voices heard! TAG, DEPORT OR DETAIN.

My friend Brian White moved to the UK aged 15 with his adoptive family after his British father, Peter White, decided to move back home. He has overcome so much adversity but now faces the risk of being returned to Zimbabwe instead of being allowed to take up his place at Oxford University.Having been abandoned as a baby, Brian lived in a Zimbabwean orphanage until the age of 6. The White family fostered, and later adopted Brian. Brian joined the family in Wolverhampton when he was 15 and given permission to enter the UK. At this point, he should have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain by the Home Office, but was instead given Limited Leave to Remain. Brian's current difficulties stem from the handling of this decision. This only came to light as an issue when Brian's application to become a British Citizen by naturalisation was rejected, leaving any potential university applications in doubt. Immigration expert Louis MacWilliam has said to the press “On reviewing his papers it seems he should have been granted indefinite leave to enter at first instance and it is not clear why this did not happen.”Despite this, Brian carried on, studying for both his GCSEs and A-Levels at Highfields School. Although his A-Level results were outstanding (A*A*A*A), Brian was unable to take his place at Oxford because if you don’t have indefinite leave to remain you aren’t eligible to receive student finance. However, Oxford University, in recognition of Brian's achievements in the face of constant adversity, have kindly kept his place open for him. I have had the personal pleasure of knowing Brian since the start of 2013, having met him at school and quickly developing a close friendship with him. He is possibly the hardest working person I have ever met, but it is his enthusiasm to help those around him that I am inspired by each and every day. If Brian is not granted Indefinite Leave to Remain, the United Kingdom would not only be losing a potentially valuable future worker, it would also be losing a fantastic person who is just as much a part of British culture and society as you and I. Please help Brian's situation by signing and sharing this petition, in the hope that the Home Office see just how many people consider Brian a fitting and valued member of the United Kingdom. #GetBrianToOxford

China: Release The 1 Million Uyghur Detainees Held Illegally In Nazi-Style Concentration Camps   By  Torchlight Uyghur Group  (Mesheluyghur@gmail.com) www.facebook.com/torchuyghur/  https://twitter.com/torch_uyghur http://blog.freedomsherald.org/ This Petition Is Also Available In The Following Languages: Turkish (Turkçe), German (Deutsch), Japanese (日本語),  Chinese (中文), Traditional Chinese (繁体字), French (Français), Arabic (عربى), Uyghur (ئۇيغۇرچە), Slawyan (Kiril), Russian(Pусский) January 20th, 2018        Many media organizations around the world have recently reported that a large portion of the Uyghur population is being detained either in jails or in so-called “re-education camps” (http://freedomsherald.org/ET/unb/ while their children are being kept in countless orphanages in the East Turkestan.   Recently, we have learned from official sources inside East Turkestan that the number of the Uyghurs currently being held in these Nazi-style political “re-education” concentration camps is more than 800,000.  That is a number known officially inside East Turkestan, but all the unofficial numbers we obtained from various sources exceed one million. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the Uyghur population in East Turkestan was 10,000,370 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang This means that about 10% of the current Uyghur population is locked up.  The conditions of the concentration camps are horrific because of the fact that such a large number of Uyghurs are locked up in relatively small and crowded spaces. We were told by several people who fled China recently that people even cannot lie down during the night with their backs on the floor; instead, they have to sleep sideways with all the adjacent bodies touching one another. We have also learned from some Uyghurs who recently lost their close relatives in the concentration camps that a significant number of Uyghurs are losing their lives in those camps every day. The families of the victims are just receiving their dead bodies from those overcrowded concentration camps. The local authorities are not giving back the bodies of the younger Uyghurs died, instead, just burying them in the nearby empty fields. These are just a few of the many examples of the horrible conditions in these concentration camps.   How did those more than one million people end up in jails, concentration camps and orphanages?  It is extremely difficult to obtain such information in China, but we have managed to get information on some individual cases from the relatives of those victims’ living outside China (The report titled “Political persecution of the Uyghurs – Brief description of some individual cases” at http://freedomsherald.org/ET/unb/ The Uyghurs are one of the ancient peoples living in the heart of Asia. They have a long and proud history, and a rich culture. Throughout the history, the Uyghurs have been a great contributor to the world peace and prosperity.  Due  to their geographical location along the famous Silk Road, they have been a major force in the cultural exchange between the East and the West. We strongly believe that the Uyghurs are an indispensable part of the wider international community and will continue such contribution to the world’s ethnic and cultural diversities in the future. Similarly, the Uyghurs will contribute to the world's peace and prosperity, just as they have done in the past. Therefore, the Uyghurs have every right to live in peace with dignity, and to continuously prosper, as any other nations on the surface of our mother Earth. However, in the recent decades, the Chinese government has banned the Uyghur language from its use at all levels of education in East Turkestan, outlawed Uyghur literature (by banning and burning historical and literature books written in the Uyghur language), restricted, criminalized and attempted to eliminate Uyghurs’ religious belief and practice, and has systematically flooded East Turkestan with Han Chinese migrants in the name of “developing the West”, and thereby marginalized the Uyghurs in their own homeland.  And now the Chinese government is openly killing the Uyghur people, too, in those Nazi-style Chinese concentration camps by implementing a state-sponsored ethnic cleansing policy.  If we don’t get help immediately from the United Nations and from the international community to stop the Chinese government from what they are doing towards the Uyghurs in East Turkestan, the Uyghurs will keep dying and disappearing in large numbers in those Chinese concentration camps (http://www.freedomsherald.org/ET/images/image201801_13.jpg and will soon face an unprecedented threat to their very existence. Therefore, we appeal to all the international communities and human rights organizations not to ignore the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity – the crimes currently being committed against the innocent Uyghur people.  We appeal to the United Nations and other international human rights organizations to demand the Chinese government to release those  1 million Uyghurs, and send investigation teams to East Turkestan and find out: ●      Where are those jails, concentration camps and orphanages? ●      Why and where those one million Uyghurs are being detained? ●      What are they eating and where and how are they sleeping? ●      What are they doing during the day? ●      What are their current health conditions? ●      What are the current death rates among the detainees? ●      What is happening to the children/siblings/parents of the people held in jails and concentration camps?  We, the Uyghurs, are powerless and helpless at the moment.  As such, we cannot defend ourselves against the Chinese government’s atrocities and cannot fight this battle for our survival alone.  We need the support of the global community.  If tens of thousands of people from around the world sign our petition, it may be possible that the United Nations will make a commitment and will act to stop the tragedy that the Uyghur people are facing today.  Please join us in our fight to end the appalling atrocities happening in East Turkestan. Please sign and share this petition. Thank you!  About the Uyghur People and East Turkestan:  East Turkestan is the homeland of the Uyghur people. It has been under the communist China' s occupation since 1949. East Turkestan is located in the Central Asia, and borders China and Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the west, and Tibet to the south. The landmass of East Turkestan is bigger than whole Western Europe. Its colonial name is “Xinjiang”, which means "the new territory" or "the new frontier" in Chinese. China officially designated the East Turkestan a Uyghur autonomous region in 1955, but in reality it has never become a genuine autonomous region. The Chinese government reported the number of the Uyghur population in East Turkestan as 10,000,370 (refer to the 2010 Chinese census), but some Uyghur sources estimate the real population of Uyghurs to be around 20 million.