Help Mary stop the MonSter

Please help stop the MonSter

Hello, thank you for finding your way to my page. Let me introduce myself, my name is Mary Cruce. I am 59 years old and have been living with Multiple Sclerosis, MS for 22 very, very long years. My life is like being trapped in a nightmare that you can’t wake up from. The MS MonSter slowly steals body parts until you no longer feel human, dependent on family and friends to meet your basic needs. This is what happened to me and why I need your help to stop the MonSter.

My nightmare began on the morning of the last Saturday in June 1994. I woke up with numbness in both of my feet. I thought I slept wrong and it would just go away. I was wrong. Over the next 2 weeks the numbness crept up my legs like a fog rolling in from the sea. After a MRI I met with the doctor who said “I have some bad news and I have some worse news”. That was the day I learned I had a brain tumor at the base of my brain and “oh by the way you have MS”. The following month I had surgery to remove the tumor and that was that. But then I had to face the second half, MS. That fight would continue for years even decades. I couldn’t just cut it out like the tumor. Over the next 2 decades I have experienced most of the symptoms of MS, numbness, pain, spasticity, imbalance, weakness, and worst of all is the MS fatigue. MS fatigue makes me feel exhausted, unable to move or even think. The fatigue is extremely debilitating. I would become so exhausted from getting ready to go out, I would have to cancel. And like a monster I never know when or how it will attack. I have gone to bed only to wake up not able to move my arms.

I have tried most of the MS medications both injectable and pill form but nothing has stopped the MonSter from progressing. Until now I can’t walk without a device and the fatigue and pain are overwhelming.

But now there is hope to stop the progression of this disease. There is a treatment, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, HSCT that has proven to stop MS from progressing. HSCT has been used for the treatment of cancer for years. A simplified version of HSCT is first they would harvest my own stem cells from bone marrow and freezes them. Then I would receive chemotherapy in order to wipe out my immune system. The next step is to reintroduce my own stem cells back into my body in order to rebuild my immune system, (re-boot me if you will). While HSCT for MS is available in other countries it is still under clinical trials here in the USA, and unfortunately I do not qualify for a trial.  

Because time is of the essence I have applied and been accepted to a facility in Puebla, Mexico for a treatment date of July 18, 2016. The cost of the treatment is $54,500 with additional costs of flight and living expense for 28 days. I need your help to stop the MonSter. I am excited and hopeful about the potential to stop this MonSter. I look forward to stopping the MS MonSter.

My family and I sincerely thank you for any level of help you are able to give.

Please help me stop the MonSter.  

Mary