Send Rebecca to Mexico for Lifesaving Treatment

For those who don’t know, my 26-year-old niece Rebecca has secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis which has limited treatment options in Australia and she is rapidly deteriorating. To prolong her life Bec has qualified to have stem cell treatment (HSCT) in Mexico which is her last option. The journey and treatment is extremely expensive (in excess of $100,000), so to ease the burden on Bec and her family I have set up a Go Fund Me initiative and any contributions would be greatly appreciated.

 

To understand her circumstances, this is Rebecca's story…

 

At the age of fourteen Rebecca had her first brain and spine MRI scan at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne which showed multiple grey matter lesions. Little did we know then that this was the beginning of a 12-year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. Rebecca was officially diagnosed in July 2017 and has gone through countless rounds of chemotherapy treatments including treatment for a brain tumour at the age of 19.

 

Now (at 26) she has her biggest fight on her hands and that is to get to Mexico to have a Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT).

 

Rebecca is rapidly heading towards a terminal stage. At present her secondary progressive MS has caused paralysis from the waist; no bladder or bowel function; she requires nursing 3 times a day; neuropathic pain from the left side of her face to her waist; swallowing difficulties including lung aspirations and visual loss with optical neuritis and sensory loss.

 

Her 10th round of chemotherapy was in October this year. Her heart and lungs are now beginning to fail. Despite neurologists’ relentless efforts to halt further deterioration, Rebecca’s body is no longer responding to these treatments as the existing brain lesion damage is causing her condition to decline very quickly.

 

After a lot of research and hope to find a last chance treatment to halt Rebecca’s MS, two options presented - HSCT in the Russian facility or the Mexican facility at Clinica Ruiz. Unfortunately, in Australia this treatment is still on a trial basis and only allows non-advanced patients into the program.

 

Rebecca (at her advanced stages of the disease) has qualified and been accepted into the renowned Mexican facility to have the bone marrow stem cell transplant and aggressive chemotherapy which has scientifically proven to halt the disease progression with the hope also of reversing some of the damage caused to her central nervous system. This will work by completely killing off Rebecca’s immune system of all stem cells and rebooting it with new harvested stem cells.

 

“Clinica Ruiz is the largest patient volume autoimmune disease HSCT private treatment centre in the world. Positive results have been achieved in over 78% of patients transplanted at Clinica Ruiz, which includes both relapsing and progressive patients. Their transplant related mortality is less than 0.22%, among the safest treatment records in the world. Doctor Ruiz Argüelles and Doctor Gómez-Almaguer have performed more than 3,000 HSCT procedures during more than 20 years for haematological and autoimmune diseases, out of which over 900 have been for MS.”

 

For more information, please find below links to Clinica Ruiz and MS Australia.

 

https://www.hsctmexico.com/index.php?lng=eng

https://www.msaustralia.org.au/what-is-multiple-sclerosis-ms/

 

A breakdown of the costs involved will be provided in future posts once the flights and all details are confirmed.

 

Rebecca will be writing a blog which in her words "aims to help other people suffering similar illnesses; going through chemotherapy and also to allow my family, friends and others to follow my journey in the hope to inspire people to keep on fighting and the significance and importance of life”.

 

We are extremely proud of Bec and how she remains positive with determination to tackle this disease head on. It is an aggressive treatment and she is aware of the risks involved but this is her best and only option. We are very thankful for any donation and for you sharing this page. Please also keep Rebecca in your thoughts.