]]> http://stemcellaware.com/2010/02/bikers-have-heart-help-ty-to-see-more/feed/ 0 http://stemcellaware.com/2010/02/call-family-gives-thanks/ http://stemcellaware.com/2010/02/call-family-gives-thanks/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:11:05 +0000 Lucy http://stemcellaware.com/?p=761

Source: Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Dear community members, friends and family:

We have been home from China for a month now and wanted once again thank you from the bottom of our hearts thank you for the fundraising events, the private gifts sent, for your love and support, because of you London hasa chance to improve her life.

Thank you, Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Adirondack Arc for letting Grandma Ruby and Jessie have this extended time off from work so we were able to take London for treatments. While we were in China we were blessed to be able to haveLondon receive9 stem cell treatments rather than the 8 we had planned on. Because of all the support; London, received approximately 90 million stem cells over a 40- day stay in China, 5 procedures by IV and 4 by lumbar puncture. Before we left for her treatments she only said afew words, Momma, Daddy, Nanna and Cy (her brother).

Today she has added hi, no, ut oh, good and good girl to her vocabulary. She will stand with assistance now and can push from laying down to a sitting position,she will get on her hands and knees as if to crawl,and hopefully soon she will be walking. The stem cells are not only helping in the way of sight, but in her ability to learn and live a more productive life.

London has light perception now and her eyes are dilating, also things she did not have before she received these treatments. In addition to the stem-cell treatments she also had daily physical therapy, acupressure and electric wave therapy over the 40 day stay in China.Oh, at times it was very hard and heartbreaking to watch her being poked and prodded at so many days in a row, and being separated from our families and friends, but it is all worth it and we are blessed to have had the opportunity to take herfor treatments that will change her life.

We see small changes on nearly a daily basis, and this is only the beginning, as the stem cells will continue to grow for up to a year. Again we just wantedto thank you all for helping to make these treatments possible for our little London Ruby. Nothing we say can convey the love and thanks we hold in our hearts for everyone who reached out to London.

If you would like continued updates, we are still posting on London’s China stem-cell blog so the staff at the wonderful hospital can see her progress as well as our family and friends. I would also like to thank the doctors, nurses, translators and staff at Qingdao Peoples Hospital for making our stay in Qingdao China as comfortable as possible.Let us not forgetto thank the wonderful women who donated their umbilical cord stem cells; without them, this also would never have happened. May you all be blessed for all you have done.

From the bottom of our hearts,

London Ruby Call and family

To follow London’s progress: stemcellschina.com/blog/londonruby. ]]> http://stemcellaware.com/2010/02/call-family-gives-thanks/feed/ 0 http://stemcellaware.com/2010/02/parents-pin-their-hopes-on-chinese-therapy/ http://stemcellaware.com/2010/02/parents-pin-their-hopes-on-chinese-therapy/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:38:55 +0000 Lucy http://stemcellaware.com/?p=726 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.

Her parents, Tracy and Dashen, are now trying to raise the nearly R500000 required for the treatment by arranging fundraising events.

“We were doing our own research and saw a success story that involved the centre, and we decided to try to get Chanaé in,” said Tracy.

She said they were aware that the treatment was not guaranteed and controversial, but they were prepared to do whatever it took to help their daughter.

Another stem cell therapy candidate in need of funding is 30-year-old Seimi Pillay, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, a hereditary muscle disease that weakens the body’s muscles. Owing to her condition, she is unable to have children.

She received confirmation last September that she was a suitable candidate. The cost of the trip to China and the treatment will be almost R286000.

“These costs are vast and I do not have the money. The treatment may or may not work. I am aware of that, but I am willing to take the chance,” said Seimi.

Readers interested in helping Dashen and Tracy Pillay can contact the family on 082 9977443 or 0829970578. Seimi can be contacted on 0837998505.

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.Visiting her first great grandson while on holiday in February 2009, Dorothy complained of a headache and so took pain killers and went to bed early.

She woke up next morning totally blind.

Her second great grandson was born two weeks later.

Doctors discovered arthritis of the blood cells caused Dorothy’s sudden blindness.

Stem cell treatment is the only possible cure but the kind Dorothy needs is only available in China.

China’s Qingdao Chengyang People’s Hospital has accepted her for treatment but it will cost about £16,000.

Kelly has been fundraising since the age of 12 and has generated about £34,000, for various charities, over the past decade.

She was so touched by Dorothy’s plight, after learning of it from a television newscast, that she determined to help.

Kelly chose to do a parachute jump because she knew it was a means of raising a lot of money, having raised £1,200 for London’s St George’s Hospital by doing a one about two-and-a-half years ago.

She is planning other fundraising events for Dorothy.

Kelly said: “It was just the fact that somebody, unfortunately, could lose their sight overnight.

“It’s sad to have a great grandchild and you can’t even see.”

To sponsor Kelly, telephone 01451 824489.

For details of Dorothy’s fundraising drive, visit www.patleach.co.uk

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.

“We didn’t want Moana to be an only child and we wanted her to have a sibling and a friend so we had Leilani and she had the same condition. She was diagnosed when I was eight months’ pregnant with my third child,” she said.

Along came Tynisha, now 3, and Xuela, 2, remarkably both don’t have the condition and baby number five is due in May.

The girls attend Baulkham Hills North Public School (Leilani starts kindergarten next year) and they are extraordinary children with a passion for music.

“They turned to music a lot. Moana plays piano wonderfully. She’s even played at the Opera House and she’s got a natural gift for music.

“Leilani loves to sing but Moana tells her when she’s not hitting the right notes!”

The girls have a chance to see again. Thanks to an email from a friend, the Faasisilas have discovered that, although there are no guarantees, stem-cell treatment in China by Beike Biotechnology has given other blind patients improved vision.

The treatment costs $19,000 each. They have booked the treatment for March and have been raising funds for the girls with a Flight for Sight campaign.

Details, donations: pintum.com.au/sight or 0433981088.

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.

David Prentice, Ph.D., formerly a professor at Indiana State University who now works full time with FRC, told CNA that this campaign is about awareness. “This (adult stem cell research) is out there. There’s more coming.” Prentice noted that the majority of people don’t even know about adult stem cell treatments and how effective they are.

According to Prentice, the exact number of conditions that can be successfully treated by adult stem cells “is growing weekly. It’s over 70, and soon it will be 80.”

Currently the most common and effective treatments using stem cells are various forms of cancers and anemias, he said, though adult stem cells have also repaired heart attack damage, treated leukemias, lymphomas, spinal cord injuries and helped patients with multiple sclerosis and juvenile diabetes.

When asked about the embryonic stem cell research debate, Prentice noted, “No human beings have even been injected yet” in embryonic stem cell research. Published science, however, has verified the successful treatments of thousands of patients using adult stem cells.

“Lets focus on helping the patients, and helping them now,” Prentice said. “We’re not even talking about embryonic stem cell research. It’s not helping anybody. It’s not even helping the lab rats.”

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.
“We found out these treatments not only offer the hope and gift of sight but can benefit patients with cerebral palsy,’’ Tasha said.
Tasha has a permit for raffles from Fair Trading Queensland and businesses have been donating prizes to be raffled every Saturday at the Warner Tavern. The campaign is only starting and $350 has been raised so far.
Visit [url=http://www.tashashopeforsight.com]http://www.tashashopeforsight.com[/url].

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.CD’s Helping Hands is a unique voluntary organisation that supports children and their families through cancer treatment, while ‘Mia’s Hope’ is currently raising funds to send two-year-old Mia Allen to China to get stem cell treatment. Both charities are heavily dependent on donations from the public so that they can continue doing great work.

The show itself will be full of fun and fashion, with well-known RTE newsreader Aine Lally hosting the event. When planning the show, Weightwatchers was very conscious of the economic downturn and decided to focus on fashions that are price friendly.

In keeping with this philosophy, Weightwatchers wanted to offer guests excellent value for money by pricing tickets at just €10. The show starts at 8pm at the Claregalway Hotel.

For ticket information, contact the Claregalway Hotel on 091-738300 or any local Weightwatchers class.

PIONEERING stem-cell treatments have been carried out on a Shepherdswell three-year-old, thanks to help from Express readers.

Brave Travis Ransley-Warnes suffers from septo-optic dysplasia, meaning the optic nerves behind his eyes have not developed properly, leaving him unable to see. He also suffers from a brain condition that causes learning restrictions, seizures, breathing

difficulties and problems eating and swallowing.

In a bid to give their son a chance of sight and better mobility, parents Chris and Hazel launched a campaign to raise the £35,000 needed to take him to the Bethune International Peace Hospital, near Bejiing, for the radical treatments coordinated by experts from the Beike Biotech company. The treatment, which involves using umbilical-cord blood stem cells, is not available in the UK.

Following our front-page story on their battle last May, scores of generous readers, including pupils at Sibertswold school, Dover Lions, and Shepherdswell Golf Society, donated cash and held fundraisers to help the Ransley-Warnes family to undertake their 16,500-mile trip.

Now, after undergoing a gruelling six weeks of stem cell injections, IV treatments and physiotherapy, the future is starting to look brighter for Travis.

Speaking before the family’s return from the Bethune International Peace Hospital, near Bejiing, on Monday Network Rail worker Hazel, 38, said: “Travis is getting stronger every day. He has just had his seventh stem-cell treatment and, although there is no obvious sign that his vision is improving yet, we have noticed other things happening to him. He is more aware, trying to talk more and is sitting better, holding his head up. We hope over the next few months the stem cells will do their work and help those eyes to see better.

“He has also been undergoing an intensive programme of physiotherapy twice a day.

“He is finding the last week a bit hard as they have upped the intensity and he often cries as they stretch muscles that have never been worked before. The therapist stretches his neck side to side and back and forwards, with the accompanying cracks, which I hate almost as much as Travis does.

“He is receiving electric acupuncture and steam aromatherapy. With the steam one he gets to lie in a big tube filled with warm steam, with just his head poking out, for half an hour, to get all the aches out of his muscles, while Chris or I sing him silly songs and nursery rhymes to keep him occupied.

“We really do think that Travis is more aware of his surroundings now, and he is trying hard to communicate with us. He is making clearer speaking sounds and tries to join in with us when we go places.

“He really enjoyed our visit out to the Shijiazhuang city Zoo and was shouting, singing and clapping his hands with a big smile on his face.”

Chris and Hazel now have to face the challenge of keeping up Travis’s physiotherapy at home and are waiting to see what results the treatments will bring.

Hazel said: “The doctors have told us it will take time for the immature stem cells to start work on helping Travis’s sight, so we have to be patient and not expect it to happen overnight.”

The next Stem Cell Awareness Rally has been scheduled for October 3rd,
2009 in Springfield, Missouri!

Location: Springfield, Missouri
Place: Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Conference Room
2720 North Glenstone
ph: (417) 865-8600 – Hotel
Date: October 3rd, 2009
Time: 1pm-5pm
Contact: Brad and Braden Hart (moneymanbah@yahoo.com)

Book your rooms soon! Contact Brad Hart (moneymanbah@yahoo.com) to
register or for more information.

Click here to download the full-sized flyer