Chris's Stem Cell Therapy For MS

Chris suffers from incurable Multiple Sclerosis, having been diagnosed with this terrible disease over 17 years ago. Our life has been very challenging ever since we were married some 38 years ago, our first son was diagnosed with Duchene Muscular Dystrophy when he was only four. It came as a huge shock to us all when Chris started showing signs of MS. We lost our battle with the Muscular Dystrophy 10 years ago. Mathew lasted for 25 years.

Having someone within your immediate family battling an incurable disease and seeing first hand what my loving wife goes through on a daily basis, I wouldn’t wish this on even my worst enemies.

Over the years Chris has been on numerous MS drugs, she was on injectable Disease Modifying Therapies (DMT) for 12 years and painfully injected these toxic drugs into her body every other day. After a short break of two years her Neurologist decided that she should go back on one of the new DMT's and put her on one of the new oral medications Tecfedera early last year. Unfortunately Chris couldn’t handle the side effects of Tecfedera. She stayed on it for only 3 weeks as her GP said that the medication was worse than the illness, with the intense stomach cramps and diarea. Chris couldn’t even get out of bed most days. Recently she suffered another exacerbation (MS flare up) and spent some time in hospital, she underwent a course of intravenous prednisone steroids. Being dependent on a wheelie walker for a few weeks she has responded well to the steroid therapy. Although still ambulant and able to get around with a walking stick with my support she is doing fairly well considering how long she has lived with MS.

Apart from the toxic MS drugs prescribed to her she also uses a suite of other prescription drugs and over the counter pain medication. Although from the outside Chris can look incredibly well, ask anyone who suffers from MS and inside they are living a hellish life.

Most people living with MS experience “invisible” (or not outwardly visible) MS symptoms. This can create a unique set of issues. Some people assume that you don’t really have a disease. This can undermine your confidence and your relationships, and discourage you from seeking treatment or help for problems. Add in living with all the other things that other people can’t see — your feelings of anger, uncertainty, frustration and fear. Still, people will look right at you and say, “But you look so good!” — MS symptoms that are hard to see include fatigue, pain, cognitive problems like memory loss or trouble solving problems, weakness, blurred vision, numbness, prickly or tingling sensations, heat sensitivity, dizziness, balance/coordination problems, and bladder or bowel problems.

Most people arn't aware that the MS pharma drug market is now over $20 Billion (worldwide) with around 12 highly priced drugs subsidised by Medicare for use in Australia. This list is set to expand with many more new drugs currently being used or under clinical trials around the world. Australia has some 23,000 sufferers of MS out of a worldwide total of approximately 2,500,000. The drug market for MS is huge and growing.

Unfortunately at the end of the day, the best one can achieve is around 30% less flare ups by taking these expensive drugs. None of these so called miracle drugs even look like curing this terrible disease but they certainly come with a plethora of dreadful side effects. Including but not limited to possible Liver disease, kidney failure, (progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy PML) and even death.

Sick and tired of being sick Chris has decided to try revolutionary 'STEM CELL THERAPY. You may have seen the story last year on Sixty Minutes. They ran a story, detailing how a young mother had to travel to Russia for stem cell treatment to stop her continued decline caused by Multiple Sclerosis. While treatment meant the woman on television was able to start jogging after previously being confined to a wheelchair, Chris and I are very realistic as well as optimistic, if she can regain some of her strength and get rid of some of the worst 'hidden' symptoms that would be a fantastic result. Should the results be as dramatic as the results in the Sixty Minutes story that would be like winning Lotto!

Current research has advanced greatly since then and the same Stem Cell Treatment is now available in Australia. But like any new therapy the Government still sees it as experimental and it is not subsidised through our Medicare system. Hence our crowd-funding trip!