Nitrous oxide: 'Daily use of laughing gas left me in a wheelchair'

Kerry-Anne Donaldson says she did not know about the negative effects of nitrous oxide until she ended up in hospital

A woman who took almost 100 cannisters of laughing gas a day says she has been left with permanent nerve damage.

Kerry-Anne Donaldson, 26 and from east London, first started using nitrous oxide, also known as NOS, when she was 18.

Five years later, she was taken to hospital after waking up with no sensation in her legs and arms. She now uses a wheelchair.

It is now a criminal offence in the UK to possess the class C drug.

Also known as laughing gas, possession can carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.

• What is nitrous oxide and why is it being banned?

• Nitrous oxide ban in UK comes into force

The government says the drug can have "psychoactive effects", something Kerry-Anne knows all too well.

Speaking to BBC Radio London, Kerry-Anne said she first took laughing gas at a party when she was 18 years old as "amongst young people it's very popular and you were seen as cool if you do it and I thought it was just a bit of fun".

The former receptionist said taking the drug caused "a lightheaded buzz for five seconds", that once it wore off, "you would want to get that feeling back again and again".

Often sold in packs of 24, Kerry-Anne started using at parties every few months, but this quickly escalated to taking up to four packs of 24 cannisters every day, totalling nearly 700 a week.

Nitrous oxide is often sold in small metal cannisters

"I started taking laughing gas by myself in my bedroom and when I would see all the cannisters on my bed, I would think that was a lot but it didn't stop me," she said.

She added she did not "know the effect the drug was having" on her body.

It was only once Kerry-Anne arrived at the hospital, due to numbness in her legs and hands, that she "found out the effect of what I had been putting into by body".

Doctors told her she had a nitrate oxide overdose, vitamin B12 deficiency and permanent nerve damage.

What does nitrous oxide do to the body?

Low levels of nitrous oxide use results in: severe headaches and dizziness, an inability to "think straight" and short-lived but intense feelings of paranoia

Heavy use of the drug can cause: suffocation from lack of oxygen, deficiency of vitamin B12, anaemia, serious nerve damage, tingling and numbness in the fingers and toes and paralysis

Source: Drugs information website Frank

Looking back at her experience, Kerry-Anne told the BBC it "wasn't worth it", adding that "no-one should be doing balloons because it's only going to damage your body and can leave you fully bed-bound like I was when I left the hospital".

"Just because you think you are taking a small dosage, the damage has been done and you could suffer the effects in up to a year's time," she said.

Speaking on the new law, Kerry-Anne said she supported it in principle but thinks "no matter what people are still going to be able to get hold of balloons and do them".

She added it may "put someone off getting medical help as they might be scared they will get in trouble".

In a review earlier this year, experts on the Advisory Council on The Misuse of Drugs said toughening the law could have "significant unintended consequences", including users not seeking medical help.

Under the new rules, those found in unlawful possession of the drug could now face a prison sentence or unlimited fine, with up to 14 years for supply or production.

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