Source: Canwest News Service

By Darah Hansen

'I haven't felt this good since before I was diagnosed'

A midnight flight from Ottawa to Vancouver delivered something of a miracle to Jacky and Tom Telder of Surrey, B.C.

There she was, the Telders' youngest child, Leah, walking towards them in the airport lobby late Monday amidst the disembarking passengers, grinning and waving a greeting.

"That was amazing. She walked off . . . I mean, there she was, actually walking," said Jacky of the moment.

Months earlier Leah, 24, had taken a similar flight, in the opposite direction.

That time, she was among the last to board the plane, hobbling unsteadily on a walker like an old woman.

The multiple sclerosis that has afflicted her since her teens had, by that point, robbed her of most of her independence, blurred her vision, muddled her thinking and sapped her strength.

"It was hard to use a knife and fork to even cut my own food," said Leah.

At its worst, the disease -- a highly unpredictable auto-immune disorder -- had temporarily confined the former ballet dancer to a wheelchair. "Her body just fell apart," said her mother.

Hope for Leah came last October, when she became only the 17th -- and the youngest -- MS patient in Canada to undergo a stem cell transplant specifically aimed at curbing the progress of the disease.

Two weeks earlier, she'd checked into the Ottawa Hospital to take part in an experimental medical study, led by Ontario neurologist Dr. Mark Freedman and Dr. Harold Atkins, a bone-marrow transplant specialist. Like the patients before her, Leah underwent heavy doses of chemotherapy -- enough to completely wipe out her immune system and cause her shoulder-length hair to fall out in chunks. Twice, she endured an uncomfortable six-hour procedure during which she was strapped to a chair, unable to even flinch, as a team of specialists carefully siphoned stem cells from her blood.

"If she moved even a little, alarms would beep," said Jacky of the extremely delicate procedure.

The stem cells were then sent to a laboratory where they were "cleaned" before being pumped back into her body.

The theory behind the $4-million study is that pure stem cells will find their way into the bone marrow and build up a new immune system in the patient, free of MS. The trial began in 2001 and is funded by the MS Scientific Research Foundation.

Qualifying patients are all between the ages of 18 and 50 and have either failed conventional MS drug therapy, or like Leah, been too sick to ever begin conventional treatment. Patients must show a rapid progression of the disease, yet must still have enough strength to walk, at least with a cane.

Study co-ordinator Marjorie Bowman said early results of the trial -- which aims to treat 24 patients in total -- will be published this summer.

According to Bowman, one patient died as a result of the chemotherapy (which is so strong, patients have a one in 20 chance of dying). Of the 16 living patients, three have reported some progression of the disease since undergoing treatment, while the remaining 13 have experienced health improvements.

Leah is lucky enough to be in the latter category. "I haven't felt this good since before I was diagnosed," she said.

She can walk on her own again and talk without difficulty. She can make a cup of coffee -- something she hasn't been able to do since she was 21.

And the majority of her vision has been restored.