Maddy’s urgent treatment fund.

We’re a group of six Bedwyn families taking on the 5 Peaks challenge to raise funds for our friend Maddy, who’s in urgent need of life changing medical treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. We’ll be heading up to the Lake District with our kids ageing from 7-13 to attempt to climb some of England’s most demanding peaks. The route is approx. eight miles long and our goal is to complete the course in or as close to 5 hours as possible. Not all the kids are totally on board, so encouraging them will be a challenge! A number of us also have injuries… BUT we are all determined to do it. The weather conditions could be very unpredictable so we must be prepared for whatever comes our way.

Maddy’s a wonderful mother to three beautiful children with her husband Phil at our local school. At the age of 17 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which is an unpredictable and fairly brutal progressive brain disease. There is a hopeful new treatment called HSCT that’s currently in the trial phase in the UK. Frustratingly, Maddy doesn’t fit the criteria for the trial. It’s likely to be a very long wait before the NHS can offer her this treatment - if ever. There is, however, a centre of excellence in Mexico called Clinical Ruiz that’s been providing HSCT to patients with the same type of MS that Maddy has, for over 20 years.

http://hsctmexico.com/ms_landing.php?gclid=CjwKCAiAwomeBhBWEiwAM43YIPCUlasUpGjIK2Fg3aQBrMPY9AXwbAtIo36enl4DaLVrJ3No-hWFYBoCEUYQAvD_BwE

If enough funds can be raised to get Maddy to Mexico to undergo HSCT there’s a 75% chance that her MS will be stopped. It won’t be cured – the damage done will remain, however it will hopefully not progress further. Maddy will need to stay in a medical facility in Mexico for a month to have chemotherapy to eradicate her faulty immune system and a stem cell transplant to help reboot it. Maddy now has more bad days than she has good. Even walking her children to school and back – a few hundred yards or so, is often tricky. She needs to raise a further £30,000 to reach her target. We’d love her to reach it soon so she can have the treatment this year and to be back home in time for Christmas with her family. If she does reach her target any additional money will go to Aims, a charity who support MS suffers trying to get HSCT.

Please do support our dear friend Maddy and give us the encouragement we need to dig deep.