First Briton to have stem cell therapy hails ‘miracle’ cure

Before the ground-breaking procedure James DeLittle, 49, couldn’t perform a basic physical task such as touching his nose with his eyes closed.

His balance was also so poor he had broken his nose, thumb and two ribs in separate falls in just two months.

But within hours of the £7,000 treatment at a clinic in the Ukrainian capital Kiev he was already beginning to notice a change.

“After just one of the two treatments, the doctor asked me to touch my nose with my eyes closed and I was spot on – I couldn’t believe it,” Mr DeLittle said. “My Parkinson’s feels like there is a spring which constantly pulls me to the left hand side. But immediately after the treatment the force didn’t feel as strong and my balance was much better as a result.”

The Ukraine clinic told Mr DeLittle, who travelled there with his mother Rosemary, they had treated more than 100 patients with Parkinson’s in recent years and claimed improvements in 75 per cent of cases.

The former lorry driver, from York, left England on January 27 to begin the procedure of having foetal stem cells injected into his body.

On the first day the stem cells were injected into his arm on a drip. The second day involved eight stem cell injections straight into his abdomen.

He returned home just three days later on January 30 with the procedure declared a success.

Doctors said his condition would gradually improve over the next five months as the stem cells work round his body and repair cells damaged by Parkinson’s.

His progress will be evaluated in around a year’s time as well as the results of various blood tests, MRI and ECG scans he underwent while in Kiev and decide what further treatment, if any, is required.

Mr DeLittle, an Army veteran who had to give up his driving job because of his condition, said: “Altogether, with the flights and hotel, it cost about £7,000 to have the procedure done, which is a lot of money.

“But I do feel a lot better. If I were even 10 years older I probably wouldn’t have gone ahead with it because it was a lot of money for me.

“As I’m 49 years old, though, I still need something to look forward to and still have a good many years left to live and enjoy, which is that is exactly what I want to do.”

He came across the clinic in Kiev after researching treatment for Parkinson’s disease on the internet. Such treatment is not available in the UK

“It can cost as much as $30,000 for treatment in the States, though, so that’s why I chose Kiev,” he added. “We’ll see how the next five months go, but from what the doctors have told me and from the benefits I’ve noticed I really think this procedure is going to be a miracle in the making.”