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 »

Source: Thisiskent 

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Source: WREX

Video: Cassy Boyda’s Family Moves Toward Treatment

BELOIT (WREX)- At age 17 most girls are hanging out with friends or thinking about what to wear to the high school dance. But for one Beloit teen, to have all of that on the mind would just be a miracle.

Cassy Boyda was born with a rare disease called Optic Nerve Hypoplasia/Septo Optic Dyslpasia. For her entire life, doctors have told Cassy’s family there’s no way to treat her.

“We’ve been to every specialist. I traveled to the Mayo Clinic. We’ve had every blood test. We even had her tonsils taken out thinking maybe that was it,” said Pam Hottenstein, Cassy’s mother.

Cassy is completely blind, mentally challenged and because of a hormonal imbalance, she physically appears much younger than a teenager. She’s also prone to severe tantrums, not only hitting herself, but her mother as well. “When she’s hitting herself and crying, and attacking, she’ll tear down the walls,” Pam said. “The last few years have been hard, watching her hit herself and things like that.” Read the rest of this entry »

August 9^th Manchester, England – Sunday proved to be a beautiful sunny day in Manchester ideal for touring the historic city center. Instead 140 people came from all over the U.K., and even some from Denmark, not for leisure, but to learn about stem cells.

Most of the attendees travelled by car or by train from different cities around Great Britain and Northern Ireland in order to attend the first U.K. Stem Cell Awareness Rally. Darren Clarke, organizer of the event, modeled it after previous U.S. Stem Cell Awareness events, choosing Manchester as the location to bring it closer to Europe and the U.K.  From the size of the crowd, it was clear that stem cell therapy is a hot topic that many people are eager to know more about. Read the rest of this entry »