Former Harborough youth worker is looking to Mexico for MS cure

Becky White (34) wants to raise up to £50,000 for a stem cell transplant in Mexico.

Her decision was confirmed by her reaction to the less expensive stem cell therapy in the USA in July.

That cost her £15,000, but has, she said, made her “a million times better”.

Before the USA treatment, Becky - a former Harborough Mail ‘Pride in Harborough’ award winner in 2012 for her work with young people - was extremely ill.

“I’d been ill before, but in January this year everything went downhill” she said.

“I’d been diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS in 2014. You can go for months even years without symptoms.

“But in January this year everything changed. My vision went blurry and I had really bad eye pain, and this time it didn’t come and go. I just kept collecting symptoms.

“I got pins and needles and numb fingers; then I felt my skin was just raw. Then I got weakness in my right hand and right arm. Eventually I was so weak I was struggling to get dressed.”

“It was awful; it really was awful” said Becky, who now lives in Caldecott, Rutland. “It just disabled me.

“And then I started to struggle to speak. My mood was on the floor.”

She got a new MRI scan in June, and went home on crutches. She was told the MS had become highly aggressive and she had inflammation of the spine, neck and brain.

She looked into stem cell treatment in Britain, but found she didn’t qualify, because she’d avoided harsh drug treatments due to the fact that side-effects can be severe.

She decided to go for stem cell treatment in San Diego, USA, which is cheaper than similar treatment in London.

“They basically harvested 178 million stem cells from the fat on my thighs” she said.

“They then injected the stem cells back into me - in my legs, lumbar area and the turbinates at the top of the nose.”

She said since the USA treatment on July 8, she had re-started driving, gone back to work at Tresham College, Kettering, and De Montfort University - and started sleeping upstairs again.

“And I’m still not taking these harsh drugs. But it’s a temporary fix.

“I need a stem cell transplant, where they harvest stem cells from bone marrow, kill off my immune system with chemo-therapy and put healthy stem cells back.”

That operation will happen in Mexico, or possibly Moscow - she’s on two waiting lists - if she can raise the money.

Her next money-raising event is on Saturday, September 10. It’s an 80s -themed disco at the Serbian Orthodox Memorial Hall in Rockingham Road, Corby, from 8pm. Tickets £5 from [email protected]

Or you can donate on her justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/BeatMS

“I just want my life back” said Becky. “I feel I can’t have a boyfriend, can’t have a baby, I just can’t risk it.”