How often does the letter "s" occur in:
A STANMORE woman who claims her daughter is severely disabled as a result of an anti-epilepsy drug she took during pregnancy took her fight for compensation to Downing Street last week.
Karen Buck, 39, of Sandymount Avenue, believes Epilim, the epilepsy medication she took during pregnancy, left her daughter Bridget Coyle, now 12, with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, and other disabilities.
Ms Buck and 600 other claimants had spent seven years preparing to sue pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-aventis UK, with the help of around £3.5million in legal aid, but just two weeks before the November 15 start date of the High Court case legal aid was withdrawn.
The Legal Services Commission withdrew the next £750,000 sum of funding claiming that it is now considered the case has less than a 50 per cent chance of success but Ms Buck and other parents were joined by MP for Harrow East Bob Blackman to lobby the Prime Minister for help.
Although David Cameron was on a trip to Afghanistan during the visit Ms Buck is confident the petition put together will get the attention it deserves.
She said: “I'm 100 per cent confident that the petition will be taken seriously because it is a very important issue.
“My daughter can't walk, she can't talk, she is incontinent, she has epilepsy and a curvature of the spine and there are children out there severely disabled and even some without limbs.
“Of course compensation will help me because I have to home tutor my daughter and I can't afford the best care for my daughter, but this is not at all about the money.
“I want it known that this drug is dangerous and ensure that other pregnant women or those thinking about having their own children know what to steer clear of.
“This has caused devastation for so many families and we want to make sure it stops and that those who have the cheek to say we have no chance of winning this case that they are wrong.
“If we had less than a 50/50 chance of winning why would we have the support of £3.5m in legal aid?
“Why wasn't it pulled when the case was first started six years ago?”
Mr Blackman is also set to ask the House of Commons for an extension on any bid to have the cash reinstated, with the deadline currently set to end on Monday (December 20).
A spokesperson for Sanofi-aventis, which is based in France, said: “The company is extremely sympathetic towards the claimants and their families although we have always believed there case would be unsuccessful.”
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The total number of "s"s in that passage is one hundred and forty.
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