Ms treatment and bills

Hi to all, for those who don't know me my name is Rachel Roberts and I am trying to fundraise for my best friend a mother of two beautiful girls Mia 7 and Zo? 5 Natasha Waugh she is suffering from an Auto Immune Disease called Relapsing and Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS), Whiplash, Costochondritis, and Dilatation of the Iris due to damage to the Sphincter Pupillae, but before I tell her story let me tell you a little bit about MS.

Diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is complex and challenging, this is because symptoms are unique to each individual, and they can mimic those of a number of other diseases. In addition, there is no single blood test or imaging test for diagnosing MS.

Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. It is thought to be an immune-mediated disorder, in which the immune system incorrectly attacks healthy tissue in the CNS.

MS can cause many symptoms, including blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, slurred speech, tremors, numbness, extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, paralysis, blindness and more. These problems may come and go or persist and worsen over time.

Her first symptoms began after the birth of her second child. She was not diagnosed until 5 years later, She had run myself down so much She ran into a wall at work and received whiplash as well as extreme dizziness amongst other things. She was unable to walk, drive or care for her Children for 8 weeks.
The symptoms She had received were not the same as a normal whiplash case would be, so an emergency MRI was done and MS was found. She has suffered from all of the symptoms stated above (except paralysis) and also receive electric shock sensations on a regular basis.

Over the last 5 years. Whilst also dealing with a repetitive chest injury (Costochondritis), as well as an eye injury which gives her headaches when subjected to sunlight because her pupil will not dilate due to trauma. She was able to overcome it and get back on my feet but have not been the same since.

She is currently receiving treatments of Tysabri once a month, this is done by infusions at the hospital. This is the latest available drug in Australia, but there is only an 80% chance of it
being able to stop any new symptoms occurring and can not do any thing to help the damage that has already been done to my nervous system. This treatment also comes with some side effects as well.

Unfortunately this has also effected her ability to work full time, whist also caring for her little ones. Her income has becoming stretched and She is finding it hard to keep on top and pay rent.

She has also been looking into other treatments such as HSCT treatment Hematopoietic stem cell transplantationHSCT, it is an 8 week procedure in which stem cells (taken from bone marrow) are harvested then injected back into the body after high doses of chemotherapy are used to kill off lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). HSCT erases the immune systems memory and basically hits the "reset button". This puts the underlying MS disease into remission and gives the body a chance to repair itself.

Overall, approximately 85% of the entire MS population, on average, will experience benefit from HSCT. In phase II studies conducted three years after receiving their transplants (which took place between January 2003 and February 2005), 17 patients (81 percent) improved by at least one point on a [EDSS] disability scale. And for all [100%] patients, the disease had stopped progressing.

Fun Facts about HSCT: It is NOT experimental-it has been performed more than 2 million times since 1967.  It is currently performed 50,000 time/yr all over the world as a cancer treatment.  HSCT is so far the MOST beneficially effective treatment to durably halt the underlying disease activity & progression of MS.
Since She would have to travel to Mexico for this proceedure and since it is not FDA approved her insurance will not cover it.  The costs for the treatment, travel, and stay are about $80,000 - $100,000.
I desperately want to stop this MS monster before it progresses.  MS is a snowflake disease. No one MSer is alike. There is no "cure", they don't know how or why people develop the disease.  She is lucky at this point to not have any major disabilities,
I would also like to get MS Readathons back into all schools! As only a few schools still do this wonderfull fundraiser for awareness.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story. Please help me reach my goal so I can live a better quality of life and to stop MS in its tracks before she dose lose her mobility, and for her girls. As well as help raise awareness about MS and for fellow MSer's through the MS Readathons.