She's Gonna Fight MS with HSCT for Melissa Bucar
Donation protected
Imagine walking down a path in the forest and feeling tingling and numbness in both of your legs or feeling like a caterpillar is crawling around in circles on your face for hours on end. You pick up your coffee cup, which slips out of your hands and smashes on the ground. Your body feels freezing, but then suddenly it switches and your skin is on fire. On a consistent basis, your body is so tired that you're constantly fighting to stay awake. Now envision batteries of tests, with no answers year after year. One morning you wake up, hop into the shower, and notice that there is a different sensation on one side of your body - it’s totally numb. When you touch that side, it feels like rubber. This numbness continues for months, moving around to different locations on your body, leaving you with the sensation that that part of your body isn't really there. You feel like there is a layer of Vaseline on your eyes, and get dizzy from doing simple things like the laundry. After years of these strange symptoms and misdiagnosis, you finally have an answer - you are living with multiple sclerosis.
That’s what happened to Melissa...
Since Melissa's diagnosis, she has remained very positive. She is on a paleo diet, practices meditation and yoga, and works out. These lifestyle changes have helped her to prevent the disease from progressing.
Melissa will be undergoing a procedure called HSCT, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Aug, 2020. HSCT is a treatment for autoimmune diseases and more commonly for cancer. This procedure has been proven to halt disease progression and reverse symptoms. After being exposed to high dose chemotherapy, the patient receives a transplant of their own Hematopoietic stem cells to reboot the immune system. The purpose of the HSCT process is to stop the immune system from attacking the body’s central nervous system and give it the opportunity to repair previous damage. This treatment will be performed at Clinca Ruíz, in Mexico. This procedure is performed by a world renowned Mayo Clinic doctor of hematology. This clinic is a leader in conducting HSCT for MS and other autoimmune diseases.
Melissa looks and acts like she’s doing great. She has the optimistic outlook that she will fight this disease. Behind closed doors, Melissa suffers from the aforementioned symptoms on a daily basis. She is a loving mom who spends her time caring for her three beautiful children and loving husband.
She works a full time job, and volunteers in roles in her community through her local hockey association. She’s also recently gotten her Health Coaching certification to help women make lifestyle changes to better their quality of life.
Her three vibrant young boys keep her busy with their antics and hectic hockey schedules! To say the least, Melissa is an extremely selfless, kind, and passionate person who is always finding ways to give back and help people in need. She is extremely active in her children’s lives, and she wants to continue to experience and enjoy life with her family with the same abilities she has today.
Melissa has given an immense amount of love, passion, and generosity to many of us over the years. She is an inspiration to myself and many others. It is time for us to help her in her time of need. Any amount given will contribute to her receiving the treatment she needs to continue being the amazing mother, wife, friend, and daughter that we all want and need her to be.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Melissa’s story. No amount is too small to help one of our favourite people take back her life!
Thank you for your consideration,
Christine Deschamps
*The goal amount has been update to reflect the exact cost of the surgery only in Canadian Dollars. Which is $54,000 US. Funds for flights, medications, caregivers and tests previous to the procedure will be raised at upcoming events.
If you’d like to support Melissa’s efforts but don’t want to do so through this site, you can email [email redacted] to make arrangements.
If you’d like to contact Melissa for more
information about HSCT please email her at [email redacted]
Melissa will share the journey of her battle with MS and information on upcoming events on Instagram. Please follow her at https://www.instagram.com/shesgonnafight/
HSCT overview:
https://www.mssociety.org.uk/about-ms/treatments-and-therapies/disease-modifying-therapies/hsct
Dr Richard Burt, Haemopoietic stem cell transplantation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qpw7XQWQgQ&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
That’s what happened to Melissa...
Since Melissa's diagnosis, she has remained very positive. She is on a paleo diet, practices meditation and yoga, and works out. These lifestyle changes have helped her to prevent the disease from progressing.
Melissa will be undergoing a procedure called HSCT, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Aug, 2020. HSCT is a treatment for autoimmune diseases and more commonly for cancer. This procedure has been proven to halt disease progression and reverse symptoms. After being exposed to high dose chemotherapy, the patient receives a transplant of their own Hematopoietic stem cells to reboot the immune system. The purpose of the HSCT process is to stop the immune system from attacking the body’s central nervous system and give it the opportunity to repair previous damage. This treatment will be performed at Clinca Ruíz, in Mexico. This procedure is performed by a world renowned Mayo Clinic doctor of hematology. This clinic is a leader in conducting HSCT for MS and other autoimmune diseases.
Melissa looks and acts like she’s doing great. She has the optimistic outlook that she will fight this disease. Behind closed doors, Melissa suffers from the aforementioned symptoms on a daily basis. She is a loving mom who spends her time caring for her three beautiful children and loving husband.
She works a full time job, and volunteers in roles in her community through her local hockey association. She’s also recently gotten her Health Coaching certification to help women make lifestyle changes to better their quality of life.
Her three vibrant young boys keep her busy with their antics and hectic hockey schedules! To say the least, Melissa is an extremely selfless, kind, and passionate person who is always finding ways to give back and help people in need. She is extremely active in her children’s lives, and she wants to continue to experience and enjoy life with her family with the same abilities she has today.
Melissa has given an immense amount of love, passion, and generosity to many of us over the years. She is an inspiration to myself and many others. It is time for us to help her in her time of need. Any amount given will contribute to her receiving the treatment she needs to continue being the amazing mother, wife, friend, and daughter that we all want and need her to be.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about Melissa’s story. No amount is too small to help one of our favourite people take back her life!
Thank you for your consideration,
Christine Deschamps
*The goal amount has been update to reflect the exact cost of the surgery only in Canadian Dollars. Which is $54,000 US. Funds for flights, medications, caregivers and tests previous to the procedure will be raised at upcoming events.
If you’d like to support Melissa’s efforts but don’t want to do so through this site, you can email [email redacted] to make arrangements.
If you’d like to contact Melissa for more
information about HSCT please email her at [email redacted]
Melissa will share the journey of her battle with MS and information on upcoming events on Instagram. Please follow her at https://www.instagram.com/shesgonnafight/
HSCT overview:
https://www.mssociety.org.uk/about-ms/treatments-and-therapies/disease-modifying-therapies/hsct
Dr Richard Burt, Haemopoietic stem cell transplantation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qpw7XQWQgQ&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
Organizer and beneficiary
Christine Deschamps
Organizer
Calgary, AB
Melissa Bucar
Beneficiary
