CARMEL Turner can walk again for the first time in more than two years - a feat she regards as nothing short of a miracle.
The 37-year-old Melbourne mum had a stem cell transplant, which she believes has effectively cured her of multiple sclerosis.
Ms Turner, the first Victorian to have the controversial treatment in Australia, reckons it rebooted her immune system and that the crippling disease has already left her body.
More than 18,000 Australians have multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease with no cure, and Ms Turner hoped her story would give others hope.
She said within days of her transplant at Canberra Hospital in November her pain vanished and she was able to walk long distances after two years of being wheelchair-bound.
"I just kept putting one foot in front of another," she said.
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"It was a miracle, it was incredible, it was surreal."
After chemotherapy to destroy the faulty white blood cells, which attacked the sheaths around her brain and spinal nerves, her bone marrow stem cells were harvested, she said.
Six million stem cells were extracted from her blood, then frozen and stored.
She then had a heavy dose of chemotherapy to destroy her bone marrow, which had been producing the faulty cells, she said.
This was followed by her transplant, in which her stem cells were transfused back into her, and her bone marrow started producing healthy blood cells.
Ms Turner first suffered severe attacks of MS three months after the birth of her daughter, Grace.
Canberra neurologist Colin Andrews, one of only two doctors in Australia performing the procedure, said the treatment stopped the disease and reversed some of the damage.
But it was too early to call it a cure, as the treatment was first done a decade ago, Dr Andrews said.
"In 70 per cent of patients, there is no evidence of recurrence of the disease over 100 months, but what happens beyond that we don't yet know."
Doctors had been reluctant to perform the procedure in Australia because it had carried a 10 per cent death rate, but this had now dropped to less than one per cent, although it was still not suitable for all MS sufferers, he said.
The 37-year-old Melbourne mum had a stem cell transplant, which she believes has effectively cured her of multiple sclerosis.
Ms Turner, the first Victorian to have the controversial treatment in Australia, reckons it rebooted her immune system and that the crippling disease has already left her body.
More than 18,000 Australians have multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease with no cure, and Ms Turner hoped her story would give others hope.
She said within days of her transplant at Canberra Hospital in November her pain vanished and she was able to walk long distances after two years of being wheelchair-bound.
"I just kept putting one foot in front of another," she said.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
"It was a miracle, it was incredible, it was surreal."
After chemotherapy to destroy the faulty white blood cells, which attacked the sheaths around her brain and spinal nerves, her bone marrow stem cells were harvested, she said.
Six million stem cells were extracted from her blood, then frozen and stored.
She then had a heavy dose of chemotherapy to destroy her bone marrow, which had been producing the faulty cells, she said.
This was followed by her transplant, in which her stem cells were transfused back into her, and her bone marrow started producing healthy blood cells.
Ms Turner first suffered severe attacks of MS three months after the birth of her daughter, Grace.
Canberra neurologist Colin Andrews, one of only two doctors in Australia performing the procedure, said the treatment stopped the disease and reversed some of the damage.
But it was too early to call it a cure, as the treatment was first done a decade ago, Dr Andrews said.
"In 70 per cent of patients, there is no evidence of recurrence of the disease over 100 months, but what happens beyond that we don't yet know."
Doctors had been reluctant to perform the procedure in Australia because it had carried a 10 per cent death rate, but this had now dropped to less than one per cent, although it was still not suitable for all MS sufferers, he said.