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L-R Rosalyn Amliwala, Katie Brown, Nicola Macey, Anne Sweeney and Alison Taylor inside the 02 when they finished
After damaging her knee while refereeing a rugby match, Alison Taylor from Warsash thought she may never be able to walk again.
But after undergoing pioneering stem cell treatment – which included growing a new piece of knee cartilage in Denmark – she has been able to complete a marathon.
The mum-of-three endured around five years of pain and had eight operations to recover from the injury.
“The relief is still immense,” she said.
Alison had damaged her knee so much it had crumbled and disappeared. Doctors said she would need a knee replacement, which would then need to be changed every 10 years.
But instead she had the pioneering new treatment in which medics harvested cells from above the damaged knee and sent them to a lab in Copenhagen to grow her a new knee cap.
Now she will be pain-free for the next 15 years - although it will require further treatment in time.
Two years on from the major surgery, she has completed a 26.2 mile night-walk with colleagues from Taylor Made Solutions in Fareham.
“When I crossed the finish line I genuinely couldn’t believe I’d done it,” said Alison, 44.
“I didn’t know five years ago, or even two years ago, what was going to happen to me.
“I couldn’t walk around the Co-op in the Locks Heath Centre. To not be able to function on a day-to-day basis was a situation I hoped I wasn’t going to stay in.”
But she has had a remarkable recovery from the operation, which has a success rate of 75 per cent.
“It’s fascinating technology,” she added. “They took a sample from my leg that wasn’t damaged, sent it to Denmark to grow and replanted it into my knee. Then glued and stapled it back up.”
Alison laughed: “My knee looked like a road map of Great Britain.”
The marathon-walking team of five, all from the Western Wards area, walked across London with thousands of others to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
They crossed the Shine Walk finish line at 5.40am, completing it in nine hours and 11 minutes. They have raised more than £3,200 for the charity and hope to increase the total to £3,500.
She said she saw the marathon as a personal challenge to overcome her ordeal as well as raise money “for a fantastic charity”.
“People have been really generous,” she said. “I’m pretty confident it shows I’m recovered. My feet were throbbing afterwards, but my knee was absolutely brilliant throughout the walk.
“It was an amazing experience and something everyone should do!
“I’m sending a photo of me crossing the finish line to my surgeon because without him I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
Short URL: http://www.wwgazette.co.uk/?p=5928
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Is it time for Terrell Owens to step away from the game he loves? T.O. still dreams of being the enigmatic personality that he has been in the NFL. He wants to return and has gone to South Korea for treatment on his torn ACL, suffered during the offseason.
The choice to go to Korea was to use stem cell research that is illegal in the United States, even though stem—cell therapy does not violate the drug policies of the major sports leagues in the U.S.
“Players have the right to choose their medical care, they are going to have to make those decisions,' Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "You have to know who you being treated by and what you are treated with. That's the responsibility of the players if they are going to go outside the system."
This means that Owens is doing nothing wrong in the eyes of the league, and if he's is able to make it back to the league, it could start a precedent for more players to try it.
FOX Insider Jay Glazer reported on FOX NFL Sunday that T.O.'s rehab is ahead of schedule.
Another star who's experimented with stem cell research is Colts QB Peyton Manning. He went to Europe and had his own fat injected into his neck to repair nerve and muscle damage.
With two big names advocating the experimental research will there be more players that follow?
It definitely will be the case is they both can make it back into the league and perform.
Terrell Owens had a pretty good season with the Bengals in 2010, with 72 receptions for 983 yards and 9 TD's.
It is also notable that he behaved better than both his teammates, Chad Ochocinco and Carson Palmer.
Owens still has the capability to play and if the question mark of his knee gets cleared up there will definitely be a team that will take a chance on the 15-year veteran. And it will all be owed to Stem Cell research.
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don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.
Remmy Kamya, 23, is not just free from the crippling bouts of pain that have affected him for years - he is cured.
Remmy has become the first British adult to undergo a pioneering stem cell treatment for sickle cell disease.
The success of the procedure gives hope to thousands of adults who may otherwise face a future filled with pain and a premature death.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood condition affecting 13,500 in the UK. Red blood cells are produced by stem cells within the marrow found inside the bones.
Healthy red blood cells are biconcaved discs which can bend and flex easily. In those with sickle cell disease, faulty stem cells produce red blood cells that are crescent shaped.
These are rigid, unable to squeeze through smaller blood vessels, and prone to causing blockages that deprive parts of the body of oxygen, leading to periods of intense pain.
Symptoms may be mild or severe, depending on how many sickle cells the body produces, and can include exhaustion and susceptibility to infection.
Crises can last for days and internal organs may gradually become damaged from restricted blood flow. It is the most common cause of stroke in children. Sufferers are not expected to live beyond 60.
Progress: The success of the procedure gives hope to thousands of adults who may otherwise face a future filled with pain and a premature death (picture posed by model)
Treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms by using painkillers, administering oxygen, drinking lots of water and prescribing antibiotics.
The only cure until now has been a bone marrow transplant. During this, extremely high doses of chemotherapy are given to kill the unhealthy stem cells within the existing bone marrow, before it is replaced with donor marrow.
The procedure carries a 20 per cent risk of fatality and could be offered to sufferers only under the age of 18 as the internal organs of adult patients are typically too damaged by the disease to withstand chemotherapy.
Life-saver: Stem cells are separated from a blood sample
'Stem cell transplants have been offered only to paediatric patients whose organs are still healthy,' says Dr Mickey Koh, consultant haematologist and director of the bone marrow transplant unit at St George’s Hospital, London.
'When considering transplants we had to weigh up the severity of symptoms and the risk to life. Chemotherapy kills the faulty stem cells but harms organs.'
The new procedure uses low dosage radiotherapy that targets only the bone marrow, so it avoids further damage to the liver, kidney, lungs or heart. Special drugs that suppress specific parts of the immune system are used to make sure the donor tissue is not rejected.
Remmy was diagnosed with sickle cell disease at the age of two. ‘I used to have attacks twice a month, lasting for days,’ he says.
The technique was pioneered in America two years ago with ten adult patients, all of whom survived and were cured. There is still a risk of fatality, but Dr Koh says it is less than eight per cent.
Having mainly suffered in his legs, feet and arms, seven years ago he began to get pains in his chest, considered more serious as they indicate lung damage.
‘I also had a brain scan which revealed I had suffered a stroke in the past,’ he says.
‘Doctors were worried this could happen again and the next time it might cause more damage.’
Remmy was referred to Dr Koh who tested his family for donor suitability and brother Ronnie, 33, was a good match.
Remmy was admitted into hospital in February and given daily injections of antibodies for five days followed by anti-rejection drugs to prepare for the transplant. Ronnie was given an injection to stimulate the production of more stem cells that would enrich his blood.
Stem cells are transplanted by blood transfusion – they travel through the arteries and end up in bone marrow.
Within days Remmy’s blood was being populated with healthy new red cells and after a week he was allowed home. Next February he can stop taking anti-rejection drugs.
‘Thousands of adults can now be treated, saving more lives,’ says Dr Koh.
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Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2046817/Pioneering-stem-cell-treatment-saves-life-sickle-cell-victim.html#ixzz1aENjoT28