Category Archives: Stem Cell Doctors


Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market Excessive Growth Opportunities Estimated to be Experienced 2018 to 2028 – Commerce Gazette

Rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy has been demonstrated to induce profound healing activity, halt arthritic conditions, and in many cases, reverse and regenerate joint tissue. Today, bone marrow transplant, adipose or fat-derived stem cells, and allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells (human umbilical cord tissue) are used for rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy. As the rheumatoid arthritis worsens, the body initiates autoimmune response and attacks the cells. Rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy is growing in popularity across hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and specialty clinics, as it increases the healing of joints and further treats the entire system that causes the joint pain and inflammation.

The stem cells with ability to stimulate regeneration, immune modulating capacity, and excellent anti-inflammatory activity can be screened and selected. In addition, abundant amount of mesenchymal stem cells can be obtained from umbilical cord tissue. These are some of the key factors favoring the development of rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market. Government are heavily investing in healthcare sectors which is turn is expected to fuel growth of the rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market. Growing research to find effective treatment for various autoimmune disorders will possibly create potential growth prospects of rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market.

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the many types of arthritis and is an autoimmune disorder. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system attacks different parts of joints by generating cellular responses and antibodies to various tissues, including collagen, which leads to joint deterioration along with complications such as heart damage and pulmonary fibrosis. Rheumatoid arthritis affects 1% of the general population worldwide. Unfortunately, the available treatments cause adverse effects as they inhibit responses of the immune system in non-specific ways. Rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy is an alternative option as the therapy works to induce healing while regenerating healthy tissue. Rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy also has a modulating effect on the immune system, which helps in fighting diseases while turning off some of the pathological responses. Today, new treatments and advances in rheumatoid arthritis research are being studied. Rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy is being studied for its efficacy in improving complications in patients through the use of their own stem cells. These stem cell therapies may help patients who do not respond to typical drug treatment and want to reduce their reliance on medications or who are looking to try stem cell therapy before starting a drug treatment.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market: Drivers and Restraints

The growing prevalence and recurrence of rheumatoid arthritis is expected to be the major factor driving the growth of the rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market over the forecast period. Although doctors do not know the exact cause of rheumatoid arthritis, but certain risk factors are observed to be associated with it. These risk factors include age (most common between the age of 40 and 60), family history, gender, environment (a toxic chemical in the environment can up the odds), obesity and smoking. Changes in lifestyle and eating habits are contributing to the growing prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis. Development and addition of new therapies is the other factor contributing to the growth of the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market. For instance, Belgian company TiGenix announced a randomized phase II trial of its adipose derived stem cell product Cx611. The trial started in 2015 for patients who have active rheumatoid arthritis despite being treated with methotrexate and steroids.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market: Segmentation

Tentatively, the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market can be segmented on the basis of treatment type, application, end user and geography.

Based on treatment type, the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market can be segmented into:

Based on application, the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market can be segmented into:

Based on distribution channel, the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market can be segmented into:

Based on geography, the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market can be segmented into:

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market: Overview

The global market for rheumatoid arthritis therapeutics is expected to witness moderate growth over the forecast period. Among the two treatment types, the allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell segment is expected to lead in the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market over the forecast period. Hospitals are expected to contribute a considerable high share in the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market as they are the most accessible channel.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market: Regional Outlook

Geographically, the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market can be segmented into viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is expected to be the dominant region in the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market, owing to the presence of various key players. The rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan is expected to grow at a significant CAGR due to the expansion of product offerings by key players. Europe is expected to have the second large share in the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market throughout the forecast period.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market: Key Players

The global market for rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy is highly fragmented. Examples of some of the key players operating in the global rheumatoid arthritis stem cell therapy market include Mesoblast Ltd., Roslin Cells, Regeneus Ltd, ReNeuron Group plc, International Stem Cell Corporation, TiGenix and others.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Stem Cell Therapy Market Excessive Growth Opportunities Estimated to be Experienced 2018 to 2028 - Commerce Gazette

‘My blood brother:’ Bone marrow donation started a friendship – Ottawa Citizen

Chris Smith donated bone marrow to Sue Vanvolkingburgh in 2004. They met for the first time in 2005 and have been good friends ever since.Handout photo

Sue Vanvolkingburgh met the man who saved her life for the first time more than a year after he did the saving.

This was in September 2005 in front of hundreds of people at a gala in at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

It was literally the three-minute hug, recalls Chris Smith, the man who donated his bone marrow to a woman he had never met.

Now, 14 years later, the pair still consider themselves blood siblings. They meet as often as possible. Their families have reunited for trips to baseball games, amusement parks and Vanvolkingburghs 50th birthday party.

Because Smiths marrow now produces her blood cells, Vanvolkingburgh now has Smiths blood type.

I call him my blood brother, said Vanvolkingburgh, a CHEO nurse who wlil turn 56 this week. I have his DNA in my blood. Im a bit of a hybrid.

Just last week, Smith, now 61 and retired from a job as a Canada Post supervisor, reunited with Vanvolkingburgh in Ottawa for a hockey game, touristy activities around Parliament Hill and a golf tournament for the Bruce Denniston Bone Marrow Society, a charity that raises money to promote donor matches and is named after an RCMP member who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1987.

In 2003, Vanvolkingburgh was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a blood disorder that occurs when the body stops producing enough new blood cells. The only option was a bone marrow transplant. She needed a sibling match or an anonymous donor. Doctors found her match on the donor registry.

Unknown to Vanvolkingburgh, her match had a story of his own. Smith, who lived in Barrie, Ont., had a niece who had been diagnosed with a form of leukemia. There were nine siblings in his family and they all signed up for the bone marrow registry. His niece was successfully treated without a transplant, but Smith thought there might be other people who might need his bone marrow.

In 2004, Smith received the call to ask if he was still interested in donating. I did what I had to (do) to give that person an opportunity, he said.

By the time Vanvolkingburgh was a candidate for transplant, she was transfusion-dependent. To prepare for the transplant, she was given high doses of chemotherapy and underwent full-body radiation. After the transplant, there was nothing to do but watch and wait in isolation. She was in hospital for 2 1/2 months.

At first, Vanvolkingburgh was told the donation would remain anonymous. Then she received a card through One Match (now Canadian Blood Services Stem Cell Registry) with all the identifying information blacked out. On the card, her donor said his family was praying for her.

I felt humbled and overwhelmed, she says now.

In 2005, Smith and Vanvolkingburgh both received a neutrally-phrased letter saying they could exchange information if they wanted. They agreed, and One Match sent them mailing addresses.

Vanvolkingburgh said she struggled over what to tell her donor. You say, Thank you, to the grocery clerk. I was having problems with even how to begin to say, Thank you.

Later that year, Smith and Vanvolkingburgh were asked if they were willing to meet for the first time. It happened at a gala at the Canadian War Museum in September in front of an audience that included members from the clinical team that treated Vanvolkingburgh.

Since 2016, Canadian Blood Services has had 410 requests for donors and recipients to exchange information, but had only 275 completed requests with contact information provided to both donor and recipient.

Its impossible to say how many donor recipient pairs have actually made contact, said Heidi Elmoazzen, director for stem cells at Canadian Blood Services. Because registries are international, it may be difficult for many people to meet face-to-face, she said. The Canadian registrys policy is to wait a year after a transplant to accept requests. It may be longer for other registries, and some dont allow that information to be exchanged.

For Vanvolkingburgh and Smith, meeting was the start of a friendship between two families. Both have three children and three grandchildren. They share sorrows and joys. Everyone in both families has registered for bone marrow donation.

No one of us knows what tragedy will strike a family member, Smith said.

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'My blood brother:' Bone marrow donation started a friendship - Ottawa Citizen

Forecasting the Future of Medicine – The Future of Things

Photo byChokniti KhongchumfromPexels

A forecast is taking an educated guess on how past patterns will shape the future. When forecasting the future of medicine, astounding innovations suggest the advent of an age of medical miracles.

In the future, we can expect new cancer treatments and the prevention of genetic diseases, and many other life-changing therapies. We can also expect that will create far less terror in patients because dentists will set aside their injections and drill for tooth cavities because they will know how to organically rebuild teeth.

Proton beam therapy. liquid biopsies and immunotherapy will save countless lives of patients diagnosed with cancer.

First, proton beam therapy will destroy tumors. This treatment delivers particles to cancerous tumors through a machine that uses a pencil beam scanning technology.

Next, liquid biopsies will replace invasive biopsies. Since early cancer detection improves a patients chances of recovery or remission, doctors rely on biopsies for faster, more reliable diagnoses. Now, medical researchers at the John Hopkins School of Medicine have developed a blood test that can screen for certain types of cancers by identifying specific DNA biomarkers and proteins.

Finally, cancer immunotherapy will use the bodys own immune system to heal cancer. This cancer treatment engineers a persons T-cells to target cancer cells, recognizing them by their biomarkers.

Traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy cause iatrogenic side effects like infertility, lymphedema, brain damage, nausea, diabetes, hemolytic anemia, or hair loss, but using the bodys own immune system causes no harm. Before they were engineered in the lab to become biological super soldiers, a patients T-cells would be overwhelmed by teeming cancer cells. They always lost the battle.

Research on these three cancer-fighting therapies still has a long way, but the results so far look promising.

Genetic traits pass through families in distinct patterns. A gene is a segment of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that carries instructions on how specific proteins should function in cells. Packaged into chromosomes, genes reside in the nucleus of cells. Although this mechanism of passing down genes to offspring works flawlessly most of the time, on rare occasions parents can pass down copies of mutated genes. For instance, in a rare genetic disease called cat eye syndrome, a person inherits a genetic defect in chromosome 22. Since the gene is malfunctioning, not giving the bodys intelligence the right information on how a specific protein should function, a cascade of unusual symptoms appear, such as congenital heart defects, wide-set eyes, and abnormal ribs.

Modern medicine cannot cure genetic diseases because genetic changes are present in every cell of the body and influence many biological systems. So, the best doctors can do is to provide treatments that manage some symptoms. However, scientists have now discovered an unusual workaround idea: editing mutations in the genes of embryos. One day, gene editing technology may give scientists the ability to rewrite DNA to prevent the transmission of rare genetic diseases.

Tooth repair often involves drilling into a cavity to fill it. In the future, this routine practice may become obsolete. Researchers have found a drug that stimulates the growth of stem cells in teeth to create dentine, an essential tooth mineral that gets eroded when someone has a tooth decay. This drug called tideglusib is currently used for patients with Alzheimers. However, it has now been shown to organically rebuild dentine. The day is fast approaching when the idea of getting a cavity filling will be considered a rather barbaric way to repair teeth.

Although the future is always unpredictable, these medical discoveries suggest emerging trends in medicine that will transform healthcare as we know it. Many of the illnesses we consider incurable today may be ingeniously healed tomorrow.

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Forecasting the Future of Medicine - The Future of Things

Abortion Foe Defends Secret Taping as Investigative Work – Courthouse News Service

David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist charged with invasion of privacy for filming attendees at National Abortion Federation conferences in California.

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) In a case that tests the limits of citizen journalism, a state prosecutor attacked the undercover methods anti-abortion activist David Daleiden used in his multiyear investigation of Planned Parenthood.

Daleiden took the stand again Monday as a preliminary hearing to determine whether he and a colleague should be put on trial on charges of eavesdropping and invasion of privacy stretches into its third week.

Daleiden claims he and co-defendant Sandra Merritt were documenting fetal tissue trafficking for medical research as part of an investigation called the Human Capital Project.

Using the pseudonyms Robert Sarkis and Susan Tennenbaum, the pair infiltrated and used hidden cameras to record abortion providers from Planned Parenthood at the National Abortion Federations meetings in 2014 and 2015 in San Francisco, Los Angeles and El Dorado, California. They also met with and covertly recorded abortion doctors and stem cell procurers at restaurants in El Dorado and Los Angeles. Those videos were later posted online and sparked a furor against Planned Parenthood.

Did part of those techniques include lying? Deputy Attorney General Johnette Jauron asked Daleiden on cross-examination.

Lying means different things to different people, Daleiden said, later clarifying, I knew I could do a more accurate and insightful investigation if I used undercover pretext.

Recording people without their consent is a felony in California. Daleiden claims he was well-acquainted with Californias Recording Law and consulted with multiple attorneys as he prepared to launch his project. Jauron targeted those consultations in her questioning.

Which lawyers told you it was OK to record people in California without their consent? she asked.

Daleiden named at least six attorneys from conservative law firms like the Thomas More Society and Alliance Defending Freedom. Daleiden said they told him nothing in California prohibited recording a nonconfidential communication.

In your consultations with these lawyers, surely someone told you abortion is not homicide in California, Jauron said.

Daleiden answered, I never described legal induced abortion as homicide. I was referring to fetuses being born alive. I was asking about the infanticide aspect.

Jauron characterized Daleidens efforts as a campaign to damage Planned Parenthoods reputation in the public eye. Reading from his project proposal, she asked, Isnt it true you wanted to polarize Planned Parenthood and their associates as enemies in the public eye and generation a reaction to them?

Daleiden said he used the term enemies sarcastically in the proposal to illicit donations for the project, and that it was not a public call to action.

He said he suspected some Planned Parenthood affiliates of changing their abortion procedures to secure the most valuable fetal tissue for medical research and believed whole organs, and perhaps even whole fetuses, were being harvested from certain clinics.

Jauron noted no one ever said they had changed their abortion techniques without patient consent in the hours of footage Daleiden and Merritt obtained from the conference and restaurant meetings. She said that most of the discussions involved Daleiden asking a lot of hypothetical questions.

She also focused on the National Abortion Federations exhibitor agreement, which Daleiden signed prior to attending as Robert Sarkis, a representative of the phony tissue procurement company BioMax. The agreement, she quoted, said all information is confidential and should not be disclosed to any third parties.

Yes, I saw that paragraph, Daleiden said.

Under questioning from defense attorney Horatio Mihet, Daleiden said he and Merritt were careful not to record in a way that would violate California law by sticking to hotel common areas and public sections of restaurants.

I tried to keep recordings within the boundaries of California law as I understood it, he said.

On Tuesday, Daleiden told the court that he understood conversations with the CEO of StemExpress and two of her employees over dinner on May 22, 2015, were not confidential, noting the close proximity to other patrons and the volume of the discussion.

Mihet played a clip of the meeting where Sandra Merritt asked if she was speaking too loudly, and one StemExpress representative told her she was not. Daleiden also testified he did not receive a nondisclosure agreement from StemExpress until June 18, nearly a month after the meeting took place but before he published the video of it.

Agents with the California Department of Justice raided Daleidens home in April 2016, seizing several computers and hundreds of hours of video footage, along with mockups for BioMax business cards and phony identification documents. Daleidens attorneys have challenged the probable cause behind that warrant, asserting Daleiden is entitled to protection under Californias Shield Law for acting as a citizen journalist.

Hite declined to quash the warrant Tuesday, finding there was sufficient probable cause in the warrant that Daleiden was engaged in criminal activity irrespective of his journalistic status and that the items seized were related to the criminal activity.

In court Tuesday, Hite seemed particularly interested in Daleidens written reports to law enforcement agencies in El Dorado County and Orange County, as well as attorneys general in Texas, Michigan, Arizona and Oklahoma. Most replied they would investigate Daleidens claims but did not respond further. Daleiden told Hite his report led to a $7.8 million civil settlement in 2017 that seized all profits that medical companies DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics received from the sale of fetal tissue donated by abortion clinics.

After Daleiden released his tapes in July 2015, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, convened to investigate a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Houston. They cleared the clinic of wrongdoing and instead indicted Daleiden and Merritt for felony tampering with a government record and a misdemeanor related to the purchase of human organs. Those charges were later dismissed.

The proceedings are expected to wrap up Tuesday with testimony by two defense experts. Both sides will submit written closing statements, which the defense said it will file by Sept. 27, after which prosecutors will have several days to respond.

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Abortion Foe Defends Secret Taping as Investigative Work - Courthouse News Service

Cancer is ‘only a word,’ says Moncton city councillor diagnosed with multiple myeloma – CBC.ca

Shawn Crossman is a city councillor, hockey coach, and father to a 19-year-old daughter, Isabelle.

He is also a cancer survivor.

Last summer, at 46, the Moncton councillor was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells.

"It is a cancer, it's a word," Crossman said Thursday. "For me it was very emotional. It was very mental. It took a great toll on me.

"But I said to myself, 'This is only a word.'"

The Moncton native, who was first elected as a city councillor in 2012, planned to head to the Canada Day celebrations last Julybut was in so much pain he changed his mind.

"Unfortunately, my back was hurting so bad that I just couldn't do it," he saidin an interview with Information Morning Moncton.

The pain had started in June, and the councillor ignored it as much as he could.

"I just brushed it off as a hockey injury or a biking injury," Crossmansaid.

When he couldn't ignore the pain anymore, he went to the emergency room at the Moncton Hospital.

Within a few hours, doctors told him his kidneys were failing. He had a crushed T11 vertebra. He also received blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy.

Three days later, the local entrepreneur was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

There was nothing he could do about the cancer diagnosis and he was at the mercy ofthe health care professionals, Crossman said.

"I put my life in their hands and I wasn't going to let that word stop me. No matter what I did."

His family was devastated, including his wife, Bev, who works in oncology.

"She broke down crying because she's seen the worst-case scenarios."

Less than a week after his diagnosis, Crossman had surgery on his back to repair the problem caused by the multiple myeloma, and then started 16 weeks of high-dose chemotherapy.

The chemotherapy was followed up blood tests and scans.

"It's been a heck of a journey."

And that journey was just the beginning.

In December, he received a phone call to say he was a prime candidate for a stem cell transplant in January of this year.

Before the transplant could be done, Crossmanhad to travel to Halifax to undergo stem cell collection, where doctors collect new healthy stem cellsproduced after chemotherapy.

He also had what iscalled a lethal dose of chemotherapy to killhis old stem cells.

During the transplant, thenew "baby"stem cells were put back into his body.

Crossman described it as a very "scary" process.

"Just picture yourself going in for stem cell collection, and they tell you that in January, this chemo that they're going to give you is going to kill you in three weeks," he said.

"That's how strong that chemo is."

He was put into isolation for a month in five days, he was throwing up his stomach lining and the lining from his throat.

Doctors said this was a clear sign Crossman was recovering andresponding well to the transplant.

He is now in remission and on maintenance therapy and hasreturned to playing golf, apassion of his.

"You get a new appreciation for life."

Multiple myeloma is the second most common form of blood cancer. Every day, eight Canadians are diagnosed with the disease, according to the Myeloma Canada website.

The disease remains relatively unknown. And although,there is no cure, people with myeloma are living longer.

Crossman received a lot of support from the community, which helped the city councillor stay optimistic. He's also received phone calls from others withthe disease.

He feels he has an important role to inspire others and help those who helped him through his cancer journey.

"They get that drive and they see that passion that I've had to beat this."

If it wasn't for cancer research, Crossman said, he's certain he wouldn't be alive today.

He will be holding the first annual Moncton Multiple Myeloma March this Saturday at the Crossman Community Centre at 1 p.m. He's hoping to raise $20,000tohelp find a cure for the disease.

"I know I will beat it and I will not let it take me down."

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Cancer is 'only a word,' says Moncton city councillor diagnosed with multiple myeloma - CBC.ca

Avoidable blindness: making global sight loss a thing of the past – Raconteur

Sight, the precious sense that brings us perspective and wonder, is under unprecedented attack. Despite huge clinical and technological advances, record numbers of people are suffering from avoidable blindness.

The economic burden of sight loss has been estimated at 28.1 billion a year in the UK, yet more than 50 per cent of blindness is avoidable.

These stark statistics are made even more disturbing by the fact that, while health and longevity profiles across all disabilities are improving, sight loss is becoming worse.

People think of eye checks as a case of if you need spectacles or not, so a cultural change in understanding is needed

Research projects are bringing us bionic eyes, stem cell regrowth and artificial intelligence (AI) that can combat the ravages of eye disease. But they are ranged against formidable harbingers of darkness in obesity, outmoded systems, poor funding and ageing populations.

It is a healthcare battle of our time. The rise of type-2 diabetes has led to an alarming climb of diabetic retinopathy over the last decade and, with more than five million people predicted to have the condition by 2025, the burden can only increase.

The maelstroms force is accelerated by an ageing population suffering from natural sight loss and a stressed healthcare system that results in huge delays for basic sight-saving treatment and an acute shortage of ophthalmologists in training.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Eye Health and Visual Impairment reported in June 2018 that sight loss is projected to increase by more than 10 per cent by 2020 and by 40 per cent by 2030.

Ophthalmology has the second highest outpatient attendance of any specialty with a 10 per cent increase over the last four years to almost 7.6 million appointments in 2016-17 in England, yet there is a chronic shortage of ophthalmology consultant posts.

A report from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 2018 warned that 67 per cent of hospital eye units were using locum doctors to fill consultant posts, an increase of 52 per cent since 2016, and that around 25 per cent of the current specialist workforce is nearing retirement.

Lack of provision has a cascade impact on health and wellbeing as evidenced by APPG research, which found 70 per cent of patients felt appointment delays and cancellations caused them anxiety or stress.

More than 50 per cent of blindness is preventable and the main causes are disease processes that could have been detected early enough to slow it down, or uncorrected short or long sight, says Louise Gow, specialist lead for RNIB. No one should be visually impaired because they havent had access to care to prescribe glasses.

The major disease causes of blindness diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, glaucoma, wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are all amenable to treatment if diagnosed early enough.

We should be making sure that in this country people are not losing their sight when it could have been prevented, says Ms Gow. We have a fantastic ophthalmology service on the NHS, but it is under so much strain. Lots of patients experience delays for follow-up appointments and getting into the system, so they present with later-stage eye disease or do not even access the services and treatment they need. We need more ophthalmologists trained, and to utilise the skills of optometrists and dispensing opticians to take some of the strain from hospitals.

Dr Andy Cassels-Brown, medical director of the Fred Hollows Foundation, an international development agency working to eliminate avoidable blindness, underscores the need for medical and technical advances to be matched with system upgrades.

While new technology is part of the solution to eliminating avoidable blindness, it wont be the single solution, he says. Breakthroughs will also come in the form of new models of care that deliver services to more people and those most in need.

Governments will need to oversee health systems, drive the adoption of affordable technologies and make them available to the most in need.

The need to harness brilliant innovation with the more prosaic system design is writ large in glaucoma, a condition that slowly damages the optic nerve and erodes sight. Around 900,000 people in the UK have the condition, but public awareness is so low that around 500,000 are unaware they have it and could suffer irreversible sight loss. Regular eye tests and faster routes to treatment could turn around an insidious problem that will lead to the loss of livelihood and independence.

The optical profession has started asking itself why enough people dont get tested and one of the answers is for opticians to follow pharmacists in providing more services to patients and relieve the burden on GPs, says Karen Osborn, chief executive of the International Glaucoma Association. People understandably think of eye checks as a case of if you need spectacles or not, so a cultural change in understanding is needed because there are so many other health conditions that can be picked up.

It is a sobering challenge, but eye health is awash with inspiring projects that have taken bionic eyes and regenerating optic cells from hope to reality.

Professor Paulo Stanga of Manchester University has successfully implanted bionic eye systems a prosthesis linked to a visual display unit in a pair of spectacles to restore some functional sight to patients with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease that causes blindness and AMD. Trials, funded by the NHS, are continuing and proving that a future where avoidable blindness is drastically reduced is more than just a dream.

Research is also progressing at Londons Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to tackle the diagnostic challenge. Its collaboration with DeepMind Health, part of Googles healthcare division, uses AI technology to detect eye conditions automatically in seconds and triage patients to the right treatment, reducing the chances of sight loss.

It claims a 94 per cent accuracy rate on eye-scan analysis and could, if clinically validated, reduce diagnosis time, release consultants for other work and create a data reservoir to improve future research.

Dr Pearse Keane,consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, says: Our work with DeepMind Health is using artificial intelligence to detect abnormalities in patients eye scans. This has the potential to provide a much faster diagnosis, which is vital in preventing sight loss from a number of conditions, including age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Avoidable blindness is verging on a national tragedy and it will need a concerted effort from campaigners, clinicians, scientists, and public health and government policy to ensure people can retain the gift of sight throughout their lives.

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Avoidable blindness: making global sight loss a thing of the past - Raconteur

I turned down chemo after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and lived then I became pregnant after d – The Sun

AT 26 years of age, Abi Flynn received the devastating news she had terminal blood cancer and a large tumour in her chest.

After two years of chemotherapy failed to have any effect, the singer-songwriter decided against doctors advice to walk out of hospital and give up on the potentially life-saving treatment she was told she needed.

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Incredibly, the tumour in her chest began to shrink. And three months later, stunned doctors discovered she was in remission.

However, after five gruelling rounds of chemo and the removal of one of her fallopian tubes, she was told she was infertile.

There was to be one more miracle though two months after being given the all-clear, Abi discovered she was pregnant.

Cradling her eight-month bump, thrilled Abi, now 29, says: When I finished chemo and radiotherapy and left the hospital in June last year, doctors told me I would likely die unless I had a stem-cell transplant. I stopped all treatment because I felt it was just making my illness a lot worse.

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Id turned down the transplant and taken a terrifying risk.

But now, all of a sudden, I wasnt dying, and two months after getting the all-clear I was pregnant. Its a miracle, just unbelievable.

Abi first went to her GP with extreme chest pain in August 2016.

She says: Doctors believed I had a lung infection and referred me for further tests.

My world was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma, a rare blood cancer, which had caused a tumour in my chest.

I found the diagnosis hard to believe. I hadnt even thought about getting cancer at such a young age. I was very tearful.

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Abi began a two-year battle through five rounds of chemo and a months intensive radiotherapy, which left her bedridden and breathless.

She says: Doctors told me the 21cm tumour was unresponsive to chemotherapy but warned I would most likely die without further medical help.

My immune system was so weak that the cancer continued to spread. Radiotherapy was the worst because I felt the effects around one month afterwards, not while I was having it.

In June last year, I decided to stop all treatment. If I had the stem-cell transplant, I worried it would leave me vulnerable to all kinds of illnesses.

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My body had been through so much and the chemotherapy had left me infertile.

This was hugely upsetting because I always knew I wanted to be a mum.

Doctors warned me that a relapse, meaning the cancer in my blood could come back, was extremely likely if I didnt have the transplant and that I could die within months, maybe weeks.

When Abi went back to hospital four months later, in June 2018, for a check-up, doctors were amazed to discover the tumour had shrunk from 21cm to 8cm and had died, meaning that she was in remission. She says: I was so scared on the way to my scan, but finding out it had shrunk and died was incredible.

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And in September 2018, a second scan showed the tumour had shrunk again to just 7cm, and I was officially given the all-clear.

Doctors were surprised and confused as to why the cancer suddenly reversed and thought it was an anomaly. They said my recovery defied medical statistics.

I have been given no explanation why it suddenly reversed.

Two days before her all-clear scan, Abi met motivational speaker Bradley Wescott, 33, at an event. The pair hit it off and became an item. Five months later they were amazed to discover they were going to be parents.

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Abi, of Hove, East Sussex, says: I went on a holiday to India and realised my stomach was bigger and my period was late.

The day after I got home, Bradley asked if I should take a pregnancy test and we discovered the incredible news.

He was thrilled and so was I. Its made us closer and stronger.

We cant wait to meet our new arrival, a little boy who is due next month.

Im so excited. I feel like I already know my baby boy.

Its a testament to just how incredible my journey has been.

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My view - by Carole Cooper

HODGKINS lymphoma is a cancer that develops from white blood cells called B-lymphocytes.

The disease can be aggressive and spreads rapidly to other areas, such as the lungs and liver.

Even so, it is usually very treatable. Nearly 90 per cent of people who develop Hodgkins survive for five years and many are cured for good.

Treatment often involves radiotherapy as well as chemo, which is tough. It can be a struggle to continue, but specialists are very experienced with this type of lymphoma and can offer the very best advice and treatment.

While every case is different, young women often do better than other people who have Hodgkins.

All the same, Abi is extremely lucky to have done so well after giving up on treatment, and her bonus baby is a near-miracle.

Most stories like this have a sad outcome. Thats why I advise people to discuss difficult issues with their doctor rather than defy medical opinion and just walk out the door.

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I turned down chemo after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and lived then I became pregnant after d - The Sun

Daleiden: sworn testimony exposed Planned Parenthoods crime of trafficking aborted-baby body-parts – Lifesite

SAN FRANCISCO, California, September 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) Pro-life undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt are hopeful that sworn testimony over the past weeks in San Franciscos Superior Court demonstrates that those who trafficked aborted-baby body parts are guilty of crimes, not the whistleblowers who exposed it.

We think the charges should be thrown out, Daleiden told LifeSiteNews.

The really shocking and troubling and clarifying truth that was exposed in the courtroom for the past two weeks here is that its very, very clear that the only crimes that were committed in the course of the undercover videotaping that Center for Medical Progress did were the crimes committed by the Planned Parenthood abortion doctors, and by the StemExpress body parts harvesters who were forced to testify under oath these past two weeks, he said.

The criminal preliminary hearing for Daleiden and Merritt ended Wednesday after stretching into three weeks. Judge Christopher Hites ruling on whether the case will proceed to trial is expected within a month.

Daleiden, project lead for the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), and Merritt, an undercover reporter with CMP, are charged with 14 felony counts of recording confidential conversations without consent in connection with CMPs undercover videos released in 2015 exposing Planned Parenthood trafficking in baby body parts. They face up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

The groundbreaking undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood executives and workers haggling over the prices of baby body parts, picking through bloodied arms and legs of aborted babies in a pie tray, and discussing how to alter abortion methods to obtain better body parts for sale.

Public outrage over the videos prompted congressional hearings and calls for the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood.

The preliminary hearing ran nine-and-a-half days between September 3 to 18, and Judge Hite will decide based on evidence if there is probable cause to continue to trial.

Daleiden and Merritt are claiming a Section 633.5 defense that allows covert recording of confidential communications when done to collect evidence of violent crimes.

Defense is also arguing that the law does not consider confidential any conversation that can reasonably be expected to be overheard.

The hearing saw high-level Planned Parenthood abortionists along with the CEO of baby parts harvesting company StemExpress dodging questions on their gruesome business under cross-examination by pro-life defense lawyers.

It was the venue for Daleidens first-ever public testimony about why he embarked on a 30-month undercover sting operation into Planned Parenthood trafficking in aborted baby parts and how he penetrated the networks of those involved in the grisly and illegal business.

It included a cross-examination of investigating agent for the Department of Justice Brian Cardwell that showed he did next to nothing to find out if those accusing Daleiden and Merritt of illegally taping them were telling the truth or understood confidentiality as defined in the law.

It featured defense testimony by one of the United States longest-practicing abortionists Dr. Forrest Smith. He testified that it is almost certain that some of the abortionists featured in the undercover videos deliberately altered abortion procedures in a way that both led to the birth of living babies with beating hearts and put women at risk. The goal in such abortions would be to obtain fresher, more intact organs.

In one dramatic moment,the attorney general unsuccessfully seeking a gag order on defense attorneys that cited a LifeSite news article after the CEO of StemExpress filed a complaint with Cardwell following her testimony that she feared for her security. In another, the defense accused the attorney general of trying to intimidate their star witness Dr. Theresa Deisher by suggesting she might be a target of criminal prosecution forallegedly being a co-conspirator in Daleiden'a undercover operation, which Deisher in subsequent testimony said she knew nothing about.

The hearing ended Wednesday with the riveting testimony of stem cell expert Dr. Deisher that human hearts used in research must be harvested from living babies. Daleiden testified earlier in the hearing he discovered a Stanford study using human fetal hearts supplied by StemExpress.

The expert testimony from brilliant scientists like Dr. Deisher just goes to show why the whole reason why I and my colleagues like Sandra Merritt and others did our undercover work with the Center for Medical Progress, Daleiden told LifeSiteNews.

Because theres very compelling evidence that the most valuable organs and tissues from aborted children are harvested from aborted children while theyre still alive. Those kids are actually killed through vivisection and that is a human atrocity that has to be exposed.

The defense also tried to have the search warrant that led to the criminal prosecution quashed, arguing that seizing Daleidens unpublished source material was unconstitutional and the prosecution politically motivated. Judge Hite denied the motion.

The political nature of the case is no secret, and testimony and evidence presented at the preliminary hearing exposed this completely bogus, sham, politically motivated case for the farce that it is, Daleiden told LifeSite.

Documents from the case now on public record show former Attorney General Kamala Harris had an in-person meeting at the attorney generals meeting in Los Angeles with no less than six top-level Planned Parenthood of California executives, he said. Daleiden added that the meeting took place a couple of weeks before Harris ordered Department of Justice agents to raid his Orange County apartment in April 2016 and seize all his recording materials, including unpublished source documents of his undercover investigation.

We have the minutes in an email from the meeting that Kamala had with the Planned Parenthood leadership, and in that meeting they discussed both Planned Parenthoods political agenda in the state of California, and they also discussed the attorney generals investigation of me and of CMP, Daleiden said.

There were two Planned Parenthood witnesses in Harriss investigation into CMP present for both discussions, he said.

So there was no separation whatsoever between what Kamala Harris was doing as a politician for her backers at Planned Parenthood, and what she was doing as the top law enforcement officer in the state of California, he told LifeSiteNews.

She was prostituting her law enforcement powers to the service of her political backers at Planned Parenthood, and thats very corrupt, and very bad, and very wrong, and that should never happen to any person in the United States of America, Daleiden said.

Its a gross violation of my civil rights and of the civil rights of all people in California.

The two witnesses were Dr. Jennifer Russo, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties, and Anna Sandoval, communications director for PP affiliates of California.

Russo was the one who was in charge of supplying body parts to the criminal Da Vinci companieswho have since been shut down, he said.

So you can imagine the sort of interest that Dr. Russo and Planned Parenthood of Orange county had at that time to try and create an alternative fake prosecution against me and against CMP.

Daleiden is now preparing for the month-and-a-half trial in the Planned Parenthood civil suit against him, CMP, and CMP undercover reporters that begins October 2.

We will be facing down against, I think 10 or 11 different Planned Parenthood affiliates in San Francisco federal court in Judge [William] Orricks courtroom, he said.

Judge Orrick was the founder and funder of a Planned Parenthood Northern California clinic here in San Francisco, which is also one of the plaintiffs in this case, Daleiden said.

Another plaintiff in the lawsuit is Planned Parenthood Orange County who had been selling late-term baby body parts to the Da Vinci companies for years and years and years, he told LifeSiteNews.

As a direct result of the evidence collected in the CMP undercover investigation, the Da Vinci companies were shut down by the Orange County district attorney and liquidated in a $7.8 million settlement in which they admitted guilt for selling baby body parts against the law, Daleiden said.

A number of Planned Parenthood abortionists who testified at the criminal preliminary hearing will be doing so in the civil case, he said.

If the past two weeks here at the prelim are any indication, the Planned Parenthood witnesses are not ready for primetime, Daleiden told LifeSiteNews.

Theyre not credible, theyre not honest, theyre not ethical, and the things that theyve been doing are not legal, call them anything you want, and theyre not pretty.

He believes that Planned Parenthood will ultimately face justice.

I dont think that the Da Vinci companies are going to be the last company like that, who are going to face justice under the law in that way, Daleiden said, adding that there were many criminal referrals sent out from the congressional investigations of Planned Parenthood.

So were still waiting to get an update from the Department of Justice and the FBI about where that stands with Planned Parenthood, he said.

The Senate Judiciary committee requested an update over the summer from them, so were waiting to find out from the Senate Judiciary Committee if they got that update and what it said, added Daleiden.

I think we should all stay tuned.

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Daleiden: sworn testimony exposed Planned Parenthoods crime of trafficking aborted-baby body-parts - Lifesite

Football Players? Or Lab Rats Who Can Run and Pass? – The New York Times

BATON ROUGE, La. The new training room in the $28 million football operations building at Louisiana State features jetted tubs, antigravity treadmills and sodium-infused water coolers. A room nearby holds another piece of equipment tucked out of sight: a centrifuge.

It is another example of how modern efforts to improve performance in big-time college athletics have moved beyond smoothies and sleep monitors. The centrifuge is used for blood work for injury treatments such as platelet-poor plasma therapy and stem-cell injections.

L.S.U. players also regularly have their sweat analyzed for nutritional deficiencies. They swallow digestible electronic pills that monitor body temperature. This summer, a dozen athletes wore neuroimaging headgear for the first time to get a peek at how their brains function in simulated athletic conditions.

Colleges have long boasted about world-class research laboratories and world-class athletic programs. Lately, the chances are greater that the two will intersect.

The rapid increase in slick gadgetry dedicated to collecting and analyzing biometrics now factors into the recruiting arms race for the top programs in college football. It has also prompted questions about player privacy and, in some cases, criticism over athletic spending for everything but player compensation.

Last fall, Clemson opened its Applied Sports Lab right in its football facility. It features a green screen and motion imaging technology that can capture detailed movements of each player. Two years earlier, Alabama unveiled an interdisciplinary center for health science and athletic training.

The University of Oklahoma collects urine samples from athletes for hydration studies, and football players at the University of Memphis sometimes wear sensors as they walk around campus to measure the amount of daily force exerted on their legs.

The University of Nebraskas Athletic Performance Lab has a system to measure blood flow in the brain. West Virginia has added far-infrared heat therapy pods, float tanks and cryotherapy chambers to its football recovery suite.

This suffusion of science onto the playing field is affecting all aspects of training, treatment and even player evaluation informing coaches how to maximize the efficiency of their athletes or perhaps to decide which of them belong on the bench. Many of these same coaches used to resist having many doctors and scientists around their team. Now, they are embracing the potential of the latest technology in the hands of skilled practitioners.

I love it, L.S.U. Coach Ed Orgeron said. Its the facts. Its not emotions.

Orgeron watched keenly last year as his wide receivers and tight ends ran routes wearing goggles that monitored their pupils to detect which eye they favored when catching passes.

That helped Orgerons assistants design better routes for the receivers. A similar test for defensive linemen could help them get off the snap quicker, Orgeron said.

Few places have been as willing to experiment as L.S.U., where the football support staff includes two kinesiologists from the universitys Pennington Biomedical Research Center and a full-time sports science research associate. They meet with the athletic trainer, Jack Marucci, three times a week.

Together, they have brainstormed some intriguing approaches to football players performance and wellness. There is, for instance, on the practice field, a 40-foot shipping container, chilled to 49 degrees, in which players can instantly cool down during hot summer workouts. Inside are two rows of bleachers for seating.

The locker room inside the newly renovated practice complex reflects the teams latest response to sleep science. Each of the 120 lockers contains a foldout bed, inspired by the fully reclinable seats in the first-class cabins of some planes. The lockers even have filtered air piped into their storage drawers to reduce the odor of used equipment.

L.S.U.s reveal of the locker rooms was lambasted from other parts of the campus, with professors and others on social media saying the universitys money should have been spent elsewhere. The school responded by saying all spending for the renovations came from private athletic donations.

Marucci, 55, considers the locker pods a game changer for recruiting. But for science and research, he is even giddier about the immersive virtual-reality room, complete with down markers for the team to simulate game situations.

Marucci is far better known for the eponymous wooden bat company he started out of his garage in 2004; today, more hitters in Major League Baseball swing Marucci lumber than any other brand.

When he is not traveling to baseball stadiums, he is typically evaluating one of the 15 new sports science product pitches he receives on average by email every day. Most are deleted. Not all.

When the Tigers find something they like, a result can be a full-blown makeover. Three years ago, after a spate of dehydration episodes, the staff analyzed players perspiration with wearable patches. Their conclusion: The athletes needed to be ingesting far more sodium.

So the trainers started dumping sodium tablets into the sideline coolers. The cafeteria chefs were instructed to be generous with the salt. And Marucci traveled to the Coca-Cola headquarters in Georgia to meet with executives about a Powerade machine that could customize drinks with precise amounts of sodium, electrolytes or sugar.

These machines are our water fountains now, Marucci said. The players will have their own custom drinks. If a guy needs to lose weight, he doesnt need to have as many carbs or sugars in his drink. We can identify guys that are cramping so we can add more sodium to his drink.

In some cases, the sodium obsession has gone beyond fluids. An L.S.U. tennis player with a tendency to cramp didnt love the taste of Powerade, so the trainers gave him cans of high-sodium Campbells soup to eat before matches.

He cramped one time all season, said Nathan Lemoine, the research associate. Why? He didnt take his soup.

For additional studies, the Pennington lab, Marucci said, is equipped with $200,000 cameras for biomechanics, scanners for body composition assessments and magnetic resonance imaging machines for concussion examinations. Were using all our resources, Marucci said. We have the access to the players, he added, and they have the expertise.

For years, coaches tended to oppose lending athletes to the scientists. Testing equaled time. And coaches stay protective of time.

But the rise of more consumer-friendly (and expeditious) equipment combined with savvy marketing has changed that. As teams started investing in more tools like wearable GPS technology for player-movement tracking all the data gathered often fell in the lap of a strength coach or a trainer. Those coaches then turned to scientists to interpret the analytics.

Thats how I started at Ohio State, said Josh Hagen, now the director of the Human Performance Innovation Center at West Virginia. I saw they were overwhelmed with data. I was like, Hey, Id love to help you with that.

He added, As long as you can provide a direct benefit to their daily routine, thats your ticket in.

Coaches began to see the benefits, too, particularly as a recruiting chip for attracting young athletes who have grown up natively comfortable with technology. These kids are different, Orgeron said. Theyre going to try stuff. Theyre reading about it, and they want to be a part of it.

Others have urged more caution. Warren Zola, a sports law professor at Boston College, has watched the proliferation of sports science technology advance from wearables to the more invasive techniques, like blood and urine analyses. And he wonders about how all that data might be used, who gets to use it and who gets to keep it.

I have no doubt that these institutions are developing these athletes in ways that they think will enhance their abilities and skills, Zola said. The question is, Who is looking out for the students?

Unlike professional sports, college athletes have no union supporting them or agent reading through the fine print of how a neural assessment might impact their playing time or draft position.

If youre an 18-year-old recruit on a football team, Zola said, are you willing to stand up to your coach and say: No, I dont want you to draw my blood because I dont know how youre going to use it or protect it. You may be trying to help me, but there may be stuff I dont want to know.

Marucci said participation in the various studies and biometric data collection at L.S.U. is voluntary; not everyone agreed to participate and there were no repercussions. One particular research request the digestible electronic pill did have a few players raising their eyebrows.

One of the first questions they asked me is, Are you tracking me? Lemoine said with a laugh. The answer is no.

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Football Players? Or Lab Rats Who Can Run and Pass? - The New York Times

Mum’s tireless campaign as daughter, 2, is kept alive by blood donors – Yahoo News Australia

A mum is pleading for people to donate blood after her two-year-old daughter was struck by an undiagnosed illness that left her the size of a one-year-old.

The toddler is being kept alive by blood donations.

Former medical administrator Steph Davidson, 25, and her 27-year-old husband Jordan were thrilled to welcome their daughter, Adeline, in November 2016.

But her joyful birth was marred by a bowel obstruction which required surgery.

Adeline, from Alness in Scotland, recovered well, but Steph noticed her daughter was always small for her age.

At the age of one she was wearing clothes for children aged up to six months old.

The mother of a two-year-old girl has urged people to donate blood after she was struck down by a mystery illness. Blood donations are keeping her daughter alive. Source: mediadrumworld.com/@adelinebluesjourney_x

In 2018 Steph made an appointment to see a paediatrician, but the four-month wait delayed this until February 5, 2019.

The paediatrician noted how pale Adeline looked, although she seemed otherwise healthy.

Nonetheless, he did blood tests and just a few hours later Steph received a call asking her to come back in immediately.

Adelines blood tests revealed possible blood cancer and Steph was told to prepare for her not to come home.

Initially, doctors suspected leukaemia but when Adeline was transferred to Aberdeen Hospital, further tests confirmed it wasnt this particular cancer.

But doctors were no closer to a diagnosis.

Adeline was tested for chromosome mutations, genetic conditions, other types of cancer and doctors are now testing her genomes to find a diagnosis.

The two-year-old has very low platelets, red-blood cell and white-blood cell counts, which causes bruises, petechia, tiredness, breathlessness and paleness.

In March, doctors believed Adeline could have myelodysplasia, a blood cancer and bone marrow failure, but she shows signs which extend beyond this diagnosis although it hasnt been confirmed or ruled out.

Since her diagnosis, Adeline had to be pulled out of nursery for fears of infection or falling which would have devastating impacts on her weakened system.

Steph started sharing Adelines journey on@adelinebluesjourney_xto encourage more people to donate blood or become stem cell donors and has already seen almost 3000 more donors sign up and help save her daughters life.

The two-year-old is seen here receiving blood as doctors continue to try and diagnose an illness that leaves her the size of a one-year-old. Source: mediadrumworld.com/@adelinebluesjourney_x

Adeline was born with a bowel obstruction which led to her having surgery as she was a poor feeder, but even after surgery she remained a poor feeder, Steph said.

She struggled putting on weight and going up a clothes size, so at one she was still in size three to six months.

Story continues

Now, at almost three years old she wears 12 to 18 months.

I had been complaining about her weight and height for a while, but I eventually got an appointment with a paediatrician and had to wait four months. She hadnt put weight on for 18 months and was much smaller than other kids her age.

I always put it down to her bowel problems from birth, but little did we know there was something else unusual with Ads.

The paediatrician... took blood tests to check her iron levels... a few hours later I got a phone call asking to take Adeline in for results. I hesitated because it was a long way to go, so he told me over the phone that her bloods indicated a serious problem possibly blood cancer, Steph continued.

He told us to prepare for not coming home. My heart just stopped, I couldnt believe it and I was hysterical.

I was looking at Adeline, who to me was a healthy, happy, beautiful girl, but they were telling me she was seriously ill it didnt make sense.

While searching for a stem-cell match, Adelines blood tests have been reviewed internationally, in Canada and Germany among other countries, to widen the search.

Adeline needs a bone marrow transplant to save her life, but no full matches have been found yet so blood transfusions keep her stable until a match is found.

Low blood counts put Adeline at risk of infection, internal bruising and bleeding out through a small cut as her blood cannot clot as usual.

But Steph insists her battle with this mystery illness hasnt dimmed Adelines spirits as she maintains her lively personality and refuses to stop having fun.

It was planned that Adeline would have a Hickman line put in to allow blood to be taken, transfusions to be given, and any medicine can go through the lines too, Steph said.

This was the best news because it was becoming traumatic for Ads as each time she had to get bloods taken, it took five attempts. Her veins were so weak and small, so theyd often collapse or move when the needle went in.

She was an absolute star during the operation and calls her lines her toggles. Shes not phased in the slightest with this new accessory.

Australscope

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Mum's tireless campaign as daughter, 2, is kept alive by blood donors - Yahoo News Australia