On December 23rd, 2019, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. On March 28th, 2020, our son, Dominic was born. We saved his cord blood & tissue, and placenta in the hope that I can use the stem cells to turn back the clock on my disease. There still is no cure, only symptom management. I'm hoping I can get into clinical trials that would use the stem cells, not only for my benefit, but to further understanding and help the PD community develop better treatments.

Stem cell banking is not cheap. It's not covered by insurance. The typical process is just saving the cord blood, but currently, mesenchymal stem cells and amniotic epithelial cells, which are in the cord tissue and placenta, are the type of stem cells that can help with Parkinson's Disease. So we opted to save all 3, in case we can use the cord blood stem cells for our children.

They're charging us $325 / month for 24 months (after a $199 deposit), for a total of $8,000, which stores it for 20 years. At this time, we're out of work due to COVID19 shutting down our jobs, but I'm able to collect unemployment for now. Any help would be *greatly appreciated* as we struggle to pay our bills. Thank you!