A tree surgeon from Southampton has claimed a ‘game changing’ product cured his decade-long back pain.

Tom Lanaghan, 37, had spent a little over a decade on a cocktail of drugs after suffering agonising discomfort following a hernia operation in 2012.

In an attempt to cure the pain, the tree surgeon had pioneering neuro-stimulators inserted into his back, which turned out to be ineffective.

Tom said: “It was in 2012 when I had been cutting down a tree and my hernia exploded.

“I had to have emergency surgery and basically the nerve never recovered, and it left me in huge amounts of pain.

“Dealing with the pain became impossible and I tried everything. I was taking tramadol, pregabalin, naproxen, and amitriptyline – but I was still in agony.”

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In a chance encounter with Farard Darver of Healthcare International Research, Tom tried HEMPE – a brand of CBD products – and he found they worked.

“Last summer I was at the Gardener’s World trade show at the NEC in Birmingham where I was selling garden machinery and Farard was there with his HEMPE product,” said Tom.

“I have tried a lot of things over the years, so I wasn’t expecting anything, and I was quite sceptical.

“The effects were immediate, and I instantly felt it working on my back, the relief was amazing.”

Having felt the positive effects right away, Tom went on to have the dorsal root ganglion stimulators removed from his back.

He went on to say: “Words are hard to find to describe what a game changer it was.”

After years of struggle, Tom now hopes to be able to go cycling with his children, something he could not do previously due to the pain.

Farard, who was formerly a green beret commander before launching HEMPE, said: “I never get tired of hearing stories like this.

“The effects Tom talks about were the same I experienced when I used CBD for the first time following an injury while serving in Afghanistan.

“It prompted me to give up my military career to launch HEMPE.

“I am so pleased Tom has found something that will manage his pain and it shows it can be better than drugs and surgery.”