My Fathers Life Changing Treatment

To all those taking the time to read this.  Could you imagine what it would feel like for your body to stop listening to your brain? To get up and want nothing but to walk to the couch without feeling like you could fall at any moment? To have a total loss of control of the body you grew up feeling so comfortable in? My name is Alanna Gaetano and my father Luke Gaetano has Multiple Sclerosis.
My father was diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 2008. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease where your own immune system begins to slowly eat away at the protective covering of the nerves. Because it affects the nervous system, 200 people could be in a room, all have MS and each have different symptoms. The symptoms include trouble walking, exhaustion, muscle weakness and spasms, blurred vision, numbness, problems with memory and so many more. The condition can’t be cured, its lifelong and doctors still don't know what causes it. Its an extremely helpless situation to be in.

Dad had worked hard his whole life, running a business and raising my brother and I. He loved spending as much time as he could wandering about the high country camping, fishing and bushwalking. He taught me everything I know about the magnificent environment around us, from the songs of hundreds of birds to the names of trees and native flora. My fondest memories with my father are those I spent in the complete wilderness with him, living simply around a campfire talking about life and sharing stories. He has an adventurous soul and a sense of humour unmatched by anyone I've ever met. Oh the dad jokes! :)

Unfortunately, the disease has had its own agenda and has physically removed my father from his body, disabling him from walking around freely like he had done his whole life. It hurts me beyond words could describe to see such a wonderful loving man being stripped rapidly of his physical and mental freedoms as a human being. Just being outside on a warm day is enough to debilitate him and cause him to need rest. 

However, dad has found some light at the end of tunnel in the form of HSCT  (Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation) treatment. We fly over to Mexico in two months to begin HSCT.
Its a chemotherapy based medical procedure that involves removing stem cells harvested from your blood or bone marrow, rebooting the immune system with chemotherapy and then introducing the stem cells back into the body. It is the only procedure currently available that has overwhelmingly halted the progression of MS. Its a lot to take in and our road ahead is overwhelmingly unsure, but he is willing to try anything, as anyone in this situation would be, and his whole family are right here to support him. The set back is that the treatment is offered in Mexico. There is a specific hospital dedicated to HSCT with many doctors and specialists moving from America and Canada down to Mexico to perform this procedure to hundreds of patients each year. 

There is no help from government bodies and we are forced to fund it on our own. Its costing my father $70,000 Australian dollars for the treatment alone. As well as flights, food, medication and all the other expenses that come along with travel. Please help us to fund his potentially life altering treatment and help me get my father’s quality of life back. If only for a while. I can offer nothing to my dad that will cure him, but I can help him find hope again.
Hope that the small things in life might be easy again. Like signing his name on a document and tying his shoelaces. Anything that you could donate would be so greatly appreciated by all of us behind this great man. Any donation, small or large, has the opportunity to change our lives!