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'Chinese pills gave woman cancer' | 'Chinese pills gave woman cancer' |
(20 minutes later) | |
A civil servant with spots who bought pills from a Chinese herbal shop suffered cancer and kidney failure after taking them, a court has heard. | |
Patricia Booth took the pills, bought at the Chinese Medical Centre in Chelmsford, Essex, for over five years. | Patricia Booth took the pills, bought at the Chinese Medical Centre in Chelmsford, Essex, for over five years. |
The Old Bailey heard the products had been advertised as "safe and natural". | The Old Bailey heard the products had been advertised as "safe and natural". |
Ying "Susan" Wu, 48, of Holland-on-Sea in Essex and Thin "Patrick" Wong, 47, of Southend deny selling, administering and marketing the drugs illegally. | Ying "Susan" Wu, 48, of Holland-on-Sea in Essex and Thin "Patrick" Wong, 47, of Southend deny selling, administering and marketing the drugs illegally. |
The court heard Mrs Booth became ill months after she stopped taking the pills - which were later found to contain a banned substance called aristolochic acid. | |
[The pills] did indeed clear up her skin but turned out to have disastrous consequences. They completely destroyed her kidneys and gave her cancer Julian Christopher, prosecuting | |
Mrs Booth's health steadily deteriorated and she also suffered a heart attack. She still has to go to hospital three times a week for dialysis. | |
Julian Christopher, prosecuting, said Mrs Booth would have to give evidence via a videolink because she was too ill to come to court. | |
'Disastrous consequences' | |
Mr Christopher said Ms Wu was working as a "Chinese doctor" at the shop, which closed in August 2003. | |
He said Ms Wu sold the drugs to Mrs Booth over a five-and-a-half-year period, beginning in 1997. | |
"[The pills] did indeed clear up her skin but turned out to have disastrous consequences. They completely destroyed her kidneys and gave her cancer," he said. | |
He said Mrs Booth was in her mid-40s when she began to take the pills and, apart from a bothersome acne-like condition, she was in good health at the time. | |
She was told by Ms Wu to take about a cap-full - 30 pills - three times a day. She would buy further bottles every 10 days or so, with the dose decreasing over time as her skin got better. | |
She stopped taking them in November 2002 but in February 2003, she found out she had chronic long-term kidney failure. | |
Mrs Booth then developed cancer three years later and has had to undergo several operations. | |
Denial | |
Mr Christopher said when Mrs Booth started taking the pills, only a registered practitioner was legally allowed to sell them. Mrs Wu was not registered. | |
The pills were banned in July 1999. | |
When officers from the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency visited the shop in July 2003, Ms Wu told the officers although she was a qualified doctor in China, she did not have the right UK qualifications. | |
Ms Wu denies administering a noxious substance to Mrs Booth so as to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm, between February 1997 and November 2002. | |
She also faces seven counts of sale of a medicine to her otherwise than in accordance with a prescription, as well as one alleging sale of a medicine not of the quality demanded by a purchaser. | |
She is also charged with selling a medicine "not on a general sale list" to Mrs Booth, namely pills described as Xie Gan Wan. | |
Both defendants face four counts of possession of a medicinal product without a marketing authorisation, relating to bottles of pills marked Xie Gan Wan, 469 sachets marked Longdan Xieganwan and 24 cartons of Xiaoke pills. | |
The trial continues. | The trial continues. |
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