A groundbreaking new treatment that ‘reboots’ the immune system is the first to reverse the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
New mum Holly Drewry (25) was confined to a wheelchair after the birth of her baby daughter (now two) but said she started seeing changes ‘within days’ of the stem cells being put in.
She told BBC’s Panorama: “I walked out of the hospital. I walked into my house and hugged Isla. I cried and cried. It was a bit overwhelming. It was a miracle.”
A disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system), MS occurs when myelin, a fatty substance which aids the flow of messages to the brain, breaks down or becomes scarred. This distorts or blocks the flow of messages, resulting in the many symptoms of MS, which include changes in sensation, concentration and memory problems.
Women are nearly three times more likely to get MS than men and it can occur at any age, with no cure on the horizon until recently.
Now however, in a breakthrough that will offer hope to the nine thousand Irish people who suffer from MS, doctors at London’s Kings College Hospital and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield are reporting that some of the results they have seen from the latest treatment have been ‘miraculous’.
The aggressive treatment sees the patient’s own stem cells harvested before doctors use chemotherapy to completely destroy the immune system. Afterwards the stem cells are reintroduced; in the latest trials, new red and white blood cells began to appear within just two weeks.
Watch Panorama – Can You Stop my Multiple Sclerosis? on BBC1 at 8.30pm tonight, Monday, January 18.
Photo: BBC
