Source: Telegraph.co.uk

By Peter Foster in Beijing

A blind boy born with an "untreatable" eye condition is travelling to China to receive a revolutionary stem cell therapy that could partially restore his sight.

Joshua Clark, who is 22 months old, suffers from Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, a congenital condition that causes under-development of the optic nerve.

His parents, Anthony and Joanna Clark from Caernarfon, North Wales, were told by doctors there was no available treatment for the illness, but heard about the stem cell therapy through the internet.

After raising £40,000 through a local fundraising appeal, the family is due to arrive in China on Thursday to begin the treatment at a specialist hospital in the city of Hangzhou, two hours from Shanghai.

"Joshua is absolutely fantastic, he's none the wiser at the moment," said Mrs Clark a 35-year-old police officer with North Wales Police before boarding a flight from Heathrow.

"It's very difficult, we want to stay positive and hope it will work but we are staying realistic as well as it might not do anything. At least we know we would have tried and done our best."

China is a world leader in stem cell therapies and the Chinese ministry of health has already accepted the use of stem cell treatments for many disorders, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

Chinese scientists have also been far less constrained by the ethical and legislative restrictions on stem cell encountered by researchers in the US, Australia or UK.

Funds for the Clark family's trip were raised through sponsored bike rides, charity auctions and hundreds of small donations from members of the public after Joshua's story was picked up by local television and newspapers.

"It's really quite overwhelming. It's been done in a matter of five months, which is incredible," said Mrs Clark who will travel to China with her husband and Joshua's grandmother Gill Doughty.It was Mrs Doughty, a nurse who had worked on an eye-ward, who first noticed that her grandson's eyes were not reacting in the normal way when he was three months old.

"It was a slow job to get the medics involved. It took a long time to get the tests that showed what he had," added her husband, Kevin Doughty, a doctor. When Joshua was six months, he was finally given a diagnosis.

The treatment program is expected to last 40 days and will use umbilical stem cells in an attempt to partially restore the damaged optic nerve.

Doctors at the Zhejiang Xiaoshan Hospital in Hangzhou said they were unable to give further details until Joshua had undergone a detailed assessment which is scheduled for later this week.

To give the stem cell therapy maximum chance success, Joshua will need to spend an hour a day for a year in a 7ft x 3ft hyperbaric oxygen chamber that has been installed in the family home.

While outcome of the treatment is unpredictable, the Clark family have been encouraged by reports of two Northern Irish girls aged six and three who underwent the same treatment and saw noticeable improvement in their sight.

"She [the three-year-old] can now make out shapes up to three feet away, which is amazing for her," said Mrs Clark before departure, "The difference with us is, of course, that Joshua can't see anything at the moment, so we don't know what to expect.

"Once we'd found the treatment however I couldn't have lived with myself unless we'd done everything possible for him to try it. It works better in young children, and this is his only chance."