Saving Sophie and Beyond

It’s not uncommon for mothers to become huge advocates and/or community educators after watching a sick child become healthy through the healing benefits in cannabis. In the case of Tracy Ryan, founder and CEO of CannaKids, witnessing her daughter’s health improve was enough to inspire the creation of a successful medical cannabis company.

“We have seen incredible things happen with the cannabis along with the chemotherapy.”

Ryan’s daughter, Sophie, was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor at eight months old. While she was willing to do whatever was needed to find her daughter an effective treatment, Ryan initially dismissed the thought of medical cannabis’ ability to help Sophie heal. However, when Ricki Lake herself, one of Ryan’s heroes, offered to give Sophie her first dose of cannabis oil on camera, she finally came around to the idea that there may be merit in trying cannabis as a treatment.

It also helped that Ryan was provided with scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of cannabis, as well as a nine-month supply of oil and advice on dosing. Finally, seeing the light at the end of tunnel, Sophie became a regular consumer of medical cannabis oil.

“We have seen incredible things happen with the cannabis along with the chemotherapy,” Ryan explained to CULTURE. “These tumors are unique because there is a 90 percent survival rate, but 80 percent recurrence rate, and because they are slow growing, the chemo can’t gobble up the dividing cells, so shrinkage doesn’t occur. Sophie was initially supposed to go blind because the tumor was wrapped around her optic nerves, and best case scenario would be minimal vision in the right eye. But in that first few months her tumor shrank between 83 and 90 percent and preserved her vision.”

Since then, Sophie has been incredibly healthy and productive for a child who is battling such a serious brain tumor, even though she continues to receive chemotherapy treatment. Seeing such dramatic improvement in her own child, Ryan realized that she had to spread the word and help other parents get medical access for their children.

“When we started using oil, we got connected to all these people in social media who didn’t understand dosing or have strain knowledge, and we didn’t have medical professionals to guide us,” Ryan stated. “I saw that there was this real need for people because back then it wasn’t as easy to find someone who was able to guide you through cannabis dosing.”

After witnessing instances involving other parents who followed bad advice online, she decided to do something to help other parents who were seeking real answers. “I knew that there needed to be more education, more support, more guidance, with people talking to medical professionals,” Ryan said.

From there, two organizations known as Saving Sophie and CannaKids were born. Saving Sophie is an informational platform where parents and interested parties can learn more about how cannabis can help save young lives. Additionally, CannaKids is an interactive website that can be used to book a phone call with a nurse who can provide advice about dosing based on data, knowledge and information gained about the patient. Then, the nurse will either recommend a product from the CannaKids line or explain how to get medical products in the caller’s home state. The site also provides information about how to obtain a medical card and which dispensaries in California carry CannaKids products.

CannaKids is now a successful business, providing products and consultation to those who need it, and helping many kids and parents gain access to treatments and knowledge that they wouldn’t be able to get any other way. But Ryan and her team aren’t content with stopping there and just selling product. They are also helping advance clinical trials on medical cannabis, so that more can be learned about how to treat specific ailments.

“We are already working on an autism trial and we are planning a huge study on autism,” Ryan explained. “We are also planning an end-of-life pain study for kids on opioids who have cancer, a trial for kids using cannabis as an adjunct to chemo for cancer pain, and then those will lead to bigger cancer trials. There is also a hospital in the Midwest where we will be doing optic trials, and that will also be fueled by the research we are doing in Israel with a company called CURE Pharmaceutical.”

All of this is leading the industry even closer to understanding and acceptance for those who need cannabis as medicine. But in addition to these major medical trials, Ryan would like to see education on the ground level, so that medical legalization can clear its final hurdles.

“Education is always the first answer,” she said. “Educating parents and caregivers on the fact that in 3,000 years, not one person has ever died from this medicine and that there have been over 1,700 scientific publications that are out there, many of which include safety studies. You’d be surprised at how many doctors around the country don’t know that cannabis is a medicine, so educating the doctors and nurses on the science behind cannabis is really important.”

Ryan hopes that the combination of doing press outreach for her company, and being open about her daughter’s success with medical cannabis, will have an impact on others and help spread the word about what the plant can do.

“It’s all about telling our story, not just for ourselves but other families we’ve worked with,” she said. “We are showing that we are just normal people, entrepreneurs by nature; we had a kid that was unfortunately diagnosed with a serious condition, and we are now communicating what worked with her to the masses by way of media. We also want people to understand our kid is nine, has been on the oil since she was five; she is happy, healthy. This isn’t a toxin; it’s helping protect her from toxins.”

Those interested in supporting CannaKids can make a donation through SavingSophie.org to help fund clinical trials and future cannabis research. Parents who want more information about cannabis treatments can set up a consultation at CannaKids.org.