Source: Thisiskent

PIONEERING stem-cell treatments have been carried out on a Shepherdswell three-year-old, thanks to help from Express readers.

Brave Travis Ransley-Warnes suffers from septo-optic dysplasia, meaning the optic nerves behind his eyes have not developed properly, leaving him unable to see. He also suffers from a brain condition that causes learning restrictions, seizures, breathing

difficulties and problems eating and swallowing.

In a bid to give their son a chance of sight and better mobility, parents Chris and Hazel launched a campaign to raise the £35,000 needed to take him to the Bethune International Peace Hospital, near Bejiing, for the radical treatments coordinated by experts from the Beike Biotech company. The treatment, which involves using umbilical-cord blood stem cells, is not available in the UK.

Following our front-page story on their battle last May, scores of generous readers, including pupils at Sibertswold school, Dover Lions, and Shepherdswell Golf Society, donated cash and held fundraisers to help the Ransley-Warnes family to undertake their 16,500-mile trip.

Now, after undergoing a gruelling six weeks of stem cell injections, IV treatments and physiotherapy, the future is starting to look brighter for Travis.

Speaking before the family’s return from the Bethune International Peace Hospital, near Bejiing, on Monday Network Rail worker Hazel, 38, said: “Travis is getting stronger every day. He has just had his seventh stem-cell treatment and, although there is no obvious sign that his vision is improving yet, we have noticed other things happening to him. He is more aware, trying to talk more and is sitting better, holding his head up. We hope over the next few months the stem cells will do their work and help those eyes to see better.

“He has also been undergoing an intensive programme of physiotherapy twice a day.

“He is finding the last week a bit hard as they have upped the intensity and he often cries as they stretch muscles that have never been worked before. The therapist stretches his neck side to side and back and forwards, with the accompanying cracks, which I hate almost as much as Travis does.

“He is receiving electric acupuncture and steam aromatherapy. With the steam one he gets to lie in a big tube filled with warm steam, with just his head poking out, for half an hour, to get all the aches out of his muscles, while Chris or I sing him silly songs and nursery rhymes to keep him occupied.

“We really do think that Travis is more aware of his surroundings now, and he is trying hard to communicate with us. He is making clearer speaking sounds and tries to join in with us when we go places.

“He really enjoyed our visit out to the Shijiazhuang city Zoo and was shouting, singing and clapping his hands with a big smile on his face.”

Chris and Hazel now have to face the challenge of keeping up Travis’s physiotherapy at home and are waiting to see what results the treatments will bring.

Hazel said: “The doctors have told us it will take time for the immature stem cells to start work on helping Travis’s sight, so we have to be patient and not expect it to happen overnight.”