Source: Timeslive

All Chanaé Pillay wants for her seventh birthday in five days’ time is an opportunity to “do all the stuff my baby sister and most kids can, like sit on her own in the swing, play in the pool and walk on the sand on the beach”.

Pillay, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was a year old, has a chance to have her condition treated after being accepted as a candidate for controversial and costly stem cell therapy in China.

The little girl from Pinetown cannot walk and has trouble holding her head up and using her hands.

Her family received a letter from the Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Centre that said she was a candidate for treatment. The company prepares various types of stem cells to treat serious medical conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Cots Wold Journal

BOURTON’S Kelly Soper will do a 13,000-foot parachute jump to help raise about £16,000 to fund surgery that would restore the sight of a pensioner she has never met.

Kelly, 33, will do the tandem jump at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire on Mothering Sunday – March 14 – to raise as much sponsorship money as possible for Dorothy Leach.

Dorothy, 75, has lived in Hardwicke, Gloucester with husband, Percy, for 53 years.

They have four children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: The Northern News

THE Faasisila family, of Quakers Hill, is asking The Hills community for help.

Two of Honi and Manase Faasisila’s children, Moana, 7, and Leilani, 5, were both born with a rare genetic condition, Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, a form of blindness.

Moana has light perception and Leilani has some functional vision but doesn’t see in 3D.

“When Moana was four months old she was diagnosed with this condition and we were told there was nothing we could do,” Mrs Faasisila said.

“We had to live with it. It was devastating. We actually sat in the dark for a long time to imagine what it’d be like. We didn’t know what to.”

The decision to have a second child was not easy. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: CNA 

Kansas City, Kan., Nov 12, 2009 / 08:03 pm (CNA).- The Family Research Council, (FRC) has announced the beginning of its campaign to spread awareness about how successful adult stem cells are in treating a variety of diseases. The most recent count places the number of conditions successfully treated at close to 80.

On Saturday, November 14, 2009, the FRC will kick off the “Adult Stem Cells Saved My Life Education & Awareness Campaign” at the Town Hall in Shawnee, Kansas. At the premier, they will publicly launch www.stemcellresearchfacts.com and present the stories of people who have been successfully treated with adult stem cells via short videos.

Laura Dominguez knows firsthand about the impact a stem cell treatment can make.

In the summer of 2001, when Dominguez was just 16 years-old, she was involved in a car accident that broke her neck, paralyzing her from the neck down.

After a Portuguese surgeon took stem cells from her nose, cultured them, and used them to replace the scar tissue in her neck, she is now able to feel her body below her chest. She can grasp and move the mouse of a computer and is able to walk with leg braces. Though her range of motion is limited compared to her abilities before the accident, due to the treatment which used her own stem cells, she is no longer a paraplegic. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Where I Live

STRATHPINE’S Tasha Hyde has been blind since birth, but now has a chance to see. All that stands in her way is $59,000 to travel overseas for treatment.
With a little help from mum Renee, nine-year-old Tasha is telling her story on the internet and through email.
Born six weeks premature, Tasha spent her first six months in hospital. She had major operations at three and six weeks.
When she came home, she had a blood clot and needed injections from her mother twice a day. She has cerebral palsy as well as blindness.
“Mummy and Daddy were quite upset for some time,’’ Tasha says in her email. “But I was always so happy they came to realise there was no one more special than me.’’
Children with blindness like Tasha’s are successfully treated at the Beike Biotech clinic in China. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Galway

A Weightwatchers fashion show, in aid of ‘Mia’s Hope’ and ‘CD’s Helping Hands’ will take place this Friday, 6 November. As well as raising funds for the charities at the fashion show, Weightwatchers will be transforming members who have lost weight through their popular weight loss programme. Members that have lost weight will be modelling the clothes on the night and the show will feature fashions from well-known department store Debenhams. Read the rest of this entry »