Help Emma Fight Multiple Sclerosis

Hello, my name is Chris and I am trying to save my wife’s life.

Emma is my best friend and mother to our 2 beautiful boys, Jacob 12 and Eli 10. Unfortunately, through no fault of her own, Emma has developed the debilitating disease, Multiple Sclerosis. After the exceptionally traumatic birth of our second son in 2008, Emma woke up in ICU, then spent a year chasing medical answers as to why she couldn’t walk properly anymore. In 2009, Emma was finally diagnosed with Relapse Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) at the age of 33. Living in Christchurch with all the earthquakes, didn’t get any easier for Emma in 2010/11 when she was constantly suffering relapses with very limited medical support. Sadly, that’s the reality in NZ. Emma is a teacher of 20+ years and loves her job, but is on the verge of not being able to manage that anymore. Her disease is progressing more and more rapidly and it is unbelievably scary for her and our boys.

Every single day is a struggle. Her quality of life has deteriorated over the last 10 years to the point where we can no longer do the things a ‘normal’ family does. She cannot walk unaided which makes everything very difficult. Emma doesn’t want her future to be worse than what it is now, as we know it will be without some form of aggressive treatment. She wants to see her young boys become men.

That is why we’ve made the massive decision to put everything on the line and go overseas for a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transfusion (HSCT). It is a 4 week invasive treatment encompassing chemotherapy into the procedure of removing and replacing Emma’s stem cells.

The results from this treatment have been amazing for other people in similar circumstances but it costs NZD$100,000 just for the procedure and flights. We can’t do it without the generosity of other people. Emma needs a further 3 months at home in isolation on return to New Zealand to allow her immune system to re-build itself and then another 9 months off work to fully recover and heal. There will be loss of income for us and other associated costs as well.

The great news is that she has managed to get accepted into the programme starting September 16th 2019 so we are trying to raise a lot of funds in a very short time.

This is not an easy decision or process to undertake but Emma is determined of will and strong of mind. If anyone can do it, she can. Without the treatment, there is no doubt that she will not be able to enjoy seeing her family grow.

Please help Emma to get there and give her a fighting chance to live a full life.

Use of funds

Aside from the huge expense of the treatment itself, we need to pay for flights, an MRI, post treatment medication and living costs upon returning home until Emma is back to good health.

About the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transfusion (HSCT)

The HSCT is a chemotherapy based treatment. The entire course of treatment is 28 days, broken down in two segments. The first two weeks are the treatment itself, and the last two weeks are isolation while she grows a brand new immune system with no memory of MS!

Her stems cells will be harvested by means of apheresis; a non-surgical procedure similar to dialysis where her blood is passed through a filtering machine by IV. After her stem cells have been collected, chemotherapy is administered to further eliminate immune cells responsible for the underlying autoimmune disease.

When the cleaning of the immune cells completed, they will be infused back into her bloodstream. Stem cells have the ability to naturally “home” into bone marrow and start dividing again in a healthy manner to repopulate her system with new immune cells. This is known as engraftment.

After a period of time her immune system will be restored with healthy cells, and devoid of auto-toxic cells. The aim of the entire HSCT treatment process is to stop the immune system from causing damage to itself. HSCT is the only treatment that can halt progression of MS. The aim of the entire HSCT treatment process is to stop the immune system from causing damage to itself.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read her story. Any amount that you can contribute would be deeply appreciated.

Emma and Chris will be sharing some of their journey on their Facebook page called 'Emma fights Multiple Sclerosis.'