How Sheffield doctors are leading the battle against MS

A YEAR ago Louise Barritt was at her lowest ebb.

Having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2009 she had suffered relapses before, but nothing like the one she experienced last January. “I’d had problems with my speech before but one morning it was much worse. Whereas before I woke up biting my tongue this time I couldn’t say certain words when I tried reading a sign or a book, it was absolutely terrifying,” she says.

“Normally when I had a relapse they lasted for two weeks or a month at most, but this lasted five months.” She went for an MRI scan which revealed she had six different lesions on her brain and spine, a sign that her condition had worsened.

Louise, a team manager for a sales firm, began to fear what lay ahead. “I’d always been quite positive about having MS but this sent me spiralling downwards and I became fearful and anxious. I had a fast paced job and suddenly I was off work for five months and I became frightened that I would have to give up my job.”

As well as some difficulties with her speech, she suffered numbness down her left hand side and difficulty walking which led to a couple of falls. She was then sent for tests which cleared her to have a pioneering transplant treatment developed at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

The ground-breaking treatment, initially developed to treat cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma, involves collecting the patient’s own bone marrow stem cells and freezing them. The patient is then given a high dose of chemotherapy before the stem cells are thawed and re-infused into the patient’s blood to reboot their immune system.

MS is a disease of the central nervous system and has no known cure. Although no-one understands the exact cause, doctors believe that in susceptible individuals something triggers the immune system to attack the brain and spinal cord, leading to inflammation and degeneration resulting in disability. The treatment, known as autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), aims to reverse this ­- destroying the dysfunctional immune system causing the MS with a high dose of chemotherapy.

Sheffield is regarded one of the world’s leading research centres on the frontline battle against the debilitating disease, and 19 patients have received bone marrow transplants with some who had to use wheelchairs subsequently able to walk again.

Louise, from Rotherham, underwent the treatment last October and three months on is already noticing a big difference. “It has given me the confidence to go out and get active again and it’s given me a lot more energy,” she says.

“At the start of 2015 I was facing the worst case scenario and by the end of the year it was the best case scenario. I’ve gone from one extreme to the other and it feels absolutely amazing to have come out the other side.”

Since the treatment she hasn’t suffered any relapses and is now using an exercise bike and doing a bit of jogging and even hopes to take part in a half marathon at some point further down the road.

The 33 year-old is also planning to get married on October 13 - the same date that she underwent the transplant that has transformed her life. “I feel like my future isn’t now all about MS or all about disability, I have a vision of my life I didn’t have before the transplant. It’s not just about having the energy, but the fear has gone and I have an appreciation of life. It feels like the possibilities are endless.”

Professor John Snowden, a Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, in Sheffield, says they have seen positive results. “It’s significant because without this intensive treatment a large proportion of the patients would have gone downhill. We’ve been able to stabilise them and in some cases reverse their disability quite effectively,” he says.

However, while some patients have seen remarkable transformations he’s keen to point out that this isn’t a cure and hasn’t been effective in cases where the disease is much more advanced. “It should become more widely available but patients have to be carefully selected. They have to be fit because it involves a heavy dose of chemotherapy and they have to be at the right stage of MS. So although we have seen some very promising results it’s not a universal cure.”

Dr Emma Gray, head of clinical trials at the MS Society, also offers a note of caution. “More than 100,000 people are living with MS in the UK and it’s crucial they have a range of effective treatment options available to them.”

She points out, too, that while ongoing research suggests stem cell treatments like this could offer hope and can have a life-changing impact, trials have found that while it can stabilise or improve disability in some people with MS it may not be effective for all types of the condition.

But for people like Holly Drewry, from Sheffield, who underwent the treatment in 2013, the change has been dramatic. Holly was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was 21 and when we first spoke to her in March last year she talked about her battle. She described going back and forth to her GP because she kept getting double vision and numbness in one leg.

When the problems persisted she went to her local walk-in centre and after a few simple neurological tests was sent straight to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital where the MRI scan confirmed she was suffering from MS.

“It was ironic really as I had been a carer and cared for people with MS, but I never thought that was what I had, In fact in some ways it was a relief to have a diagnosis as you tend to think the worst.”

After her daughter Isla was born Holly’s condition deteriorated to the point where she ended up in a wheelchair and was struggling to even change her daughter’s nappy. Nothing seemed to help until her consultant suggested a stem cell transplant.

Holly needed a wheelchair before her transplant, but after the treatment she walked out of hospital. Speaking to The Yorkshire Post last night the 26 year-old says she’s continued to grow stronger. “Before the transplant I couldn’t really do anything. I spent months in a wheelchair and I thought this was what the rest of my life would be like. You try and stay positive but it’s hard,” she says.

Now she can walk unaided and has joined a gym to help improve her fitness. “It has completely changed my life. I can go to the park with my daughter, I can take her to the play centre and go swimming with her, all the mummy things you do.”

Not that she takes it for granted. “I still get tired and I still have my down days but I’ve learned to listen to my body,” she says. “I’m ok now but tomorrow could be different, it’s a long road and I just take every day as it comes and keep my fingers crossed.”