The head of a respectable women's group in Oxfordshire has called for the terminally ill to be allowed to use cannabis.

Brenda Tomlin, chairman of the county's Townswomen's Guilds, backed the organisation's national campaign for the legalisation of cannabis to help ease the suffering of people with life-threatening illnesses.

The Oxfordshire Federation, which has 500 members in 13 branches, is celebrating its 25th anniversary and one of its main aims is to lobby the Government for a change in the law.

Mrs Tomlin said: "People can't seem to get over the word legalisation but if you add 'under specific medical supervision', we are talking about a different thing.

"At the moment, cancer patients use morphine and heroin addicts methadone. I can't see how cannabis administered to the terminally ill can be a bad thing if it's strictly controlled. "Since the subject has been broached, so many sufferers have come forward and admitted using it."

Mrs Tomlin, who is also chairman of the Carterton branch, added: "If you're in great pain, other treatment has failed and your illness is terminal, I would use it."

A dinner to celebrate the Oxfordshire anniversary, and the 70th anniversary of the movement nationwide, is being held in Banbury Road, Oxford, in June.

*Anniversary special: See Features

Story date: Thursday 28 January

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