Can You Stop My Multiple Sclerosis? Panorama

Tonight on Panorama: Exclusive access to patients pioneering a

radical treatment for an incurable disease. I just melted. My body was

just unable to get across the road and I just slumped onto the floor.

Multiple sclerosis affects 100,000 people in the UK, most of them

diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. This all happened within a couple of

months. I had to get a wheelchair, couldn't cook, couldn't dress

myself. It's just scary because you think, well, when is it going to

end? Now there's hope that a bone marrow stem cell transplant, usually

given to cancer patients, could stop MS in its tracks, preventing

lifelong disability. To live without that burden is going to be the

biggest release for me and the freedom for me and that, you can't

get any better than that. I hope I get the blue kayak. Blue one? Steven

Storey was diagnosed with MS two years ago. In that time, he's gone

from being a marathon runner to losing the use of his legs. Let's

see how well we can wheelchair across this gravel. Before MS life

was fantastic. I used to do lots of sport, triathlon, mountain

marathons, cycling. I did a lot of climbing. I spent a lot of time with

the kids and doing lots of those things with them as well. Now he's

back kayaking with his daughters for the first time since his diagnosis.

It's really fun, yeah. I'm enjoying it. It's like what we used to do.

It's bringing back a lot of memories from before. There's lots of

adventures, we've just got to redefine what those adventures afr.

Whatever your condition, there's always things you can do. Steven

hopes we will way one walk again. He's part a group of MS patients in

Sheffield undergoing a cancer treatment at the -- at the Royal

Hallamshire Hospital. Paul Kirkham is one of 100 people a week in the

UK diagnosed with MS. I was one of the most active person. The last

three months, since I've had a relapse, I've not been out of the

house to be honest. He's being assessed by neurologist Professor

Basil Sharrack in the hospital of starting the intensive stem cell

treatment. Step forward. OK, I'd like to see how stable you are.

Stand there. I'd like to walk heel to toe like that. That's a bit

difficult. It is, yeah. That's fine. We're done. What I've noticed it's

them toes here. I feel like them ones are

them toes here. I feel like them walking about with blocks of

your feet. That's because of the inflammation in the pile

your feet. That's because of the affecting the ability of these

nerves to transmit normal sensation up to your brain. That will give you

the feeling of your toes not feeling normal. MS occurs when the immune

system mistakenly attacks the protective insulation around nerve

fibres in the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation. Just as a

frayed electrical wire short circuits, the nerve fibres

malfunction. This causes a huge range of symptoms, from fatigue and

pain, to balance and walking problems and sometimes permanent

disability. For 13 years, Paul's MS was mild. But the disease recently

became aggressive, forcing him to stop work.

Even going back to work, I'd well, I'd love to do that I'd go back to

work and crack on with my life. This has only happened in the last three

month, prior to that, you could go for a walk, take the dog, probably a

couple of miles. Can't manage it, can you? I'm struggling, really

struggling, aren't I? Yeah. Despite Paul's MS, the family used to enjoy

all kinds of sports together, but now skiing is no longer possible. I

cannot believe that were a year-and-a-half ago. I were doing

that. Now look at me. I'm a bit gutted we didn't go this year. But

hopefully we'll be there next year. Should be a lot of us. It should be

good. There you are. Just going over some jumps. Professor John Snowden,

a specialist in treating blood cancers, hopes to fix Paul's immune

system with a standard treatment in his field, a bone marrow transplant.

We would hope to rebuild your immune system in a slightly different way.

It will still be your own immune system. It's not actually a true

transplant, because it's going to be stem cells from yourself. In effect

an immune system that's been reset or rebooted back to a time point

before it caused MS, This reboot of the immune system uses the patient's

own stem cells, found in their bone marrow. These cells are at such an

early stage they've not developed the flaws that trigger MS. But the

transplant is an arduous treatment. We have to mention that occasionally

some people have quite a difficult time with this type of treatment,

because it does involve intensive chemotherapy and transplant

procedure. Hey up, mum. Hello, love. You all right? I am now. I've been

thinking about you all day. I'm on chemo now. All right dad? Lovely.

How do you feel coming in and seeing Paul today? A bit emotional. But

we're positive, aren't we? He's the youngest, yeah, he's me baby. You

don't expect anything like this to happen to them. I know that he's

been really poorly. He's tried toe put a brave face on, haven't you?

And he's been a bit depressed, haven't you? He's not been able to

work and he's always been a worker. Loves his job. He loves his

children. Paul's first dose of chemotherapy, which is combined with

growth hormones, is designed to flush out stem cells from his bone

marrow. Had a bit of a rough night. But got about four hours sleep. Felt

a bit sick in the night, but they seem to think that might go, but

we'll see. A week later, the drugs have done their work. The stem cells

have left the bone marrow and are now circulating in his blood, ready

to be harvested. They're going to start sieving the stem cells out of

me body. It's amazing what they can do. You all right with needles?

You're not a fainter? No, I'm not. I've been like a hedgehog the last

few days, with the amount I've had in me! Feeling all right? I feel a

bit hot headed. Get me fan. Blood is taken out of one arm and the stem

cells skimmed off and collected whilst in Paul's other arm, the rest

of the blood is returned. Have you come to look at me stem cells. Can

you see them? That's it there. That bag to the right, that's me stem

cells. The one to the right is the plasma.

Say bye to your cells. That's the size of the potato we've got for

tea. Give over! There'll be other ones. Louise Barritt lives with her

fiance, Steve and her son Owen. Like more than eight in ten MS patients,

Louise has the relapsing remitting form of the disease, which this

therapy hopes to treat. It means she suffers acute attacks, relapses, but

with periods of recovery in between.er It's got worse this year,

since I've had the relapse. MS takes its toll not just on her body, but

her mind. The biggest thing is the fatigue and just feeling absolutely

exhausted and not just feeling tired, but it's the brain fog and

the inability to concentrate and follow conversations and make

decisions. Louise has already started her stem cell treatment at

the royal Hallamshire. My mum, she has relapses, like and she sometimes

has like her hands go all pins and needles because she's got MS. And

they're trying to put, well, make it better. Her stem cells have been

harvested, so Louise is about to go back into hospital, where she'll be

kept in isolation to prevent infection while doctors first dleet

and then reboot her immune system. -- deleet. -- delete. She might feel

a bit, probably nervous. But she might feel happy that she's having

it. But I know it might not work, but hopefully it does. Owen won't be

able to visit his mum for several weeks during this second phase of

the treatment. That's going to be the tough thing through all this

really. Because he's only ten. He's never really been apart from me. I

don't think he quite understands what they're fixing.

Louise doesn't have cancer but is about to start aggressive

chemotherapy and knows it will have side effects. With everything else

going on with the treatment, I want this to be one of the easy things

I've got to deal with. Before I cut all my hair off, I spent a long,

long time growing my hair, so I'm very attached to it, it's actually

quite a big deal for it all to go. So, yeah, I'm trying to make it as

easy as possible really. Louise is now in isolation. She's had her

chemo and has reached a critical day in her treatment. You've got a

calendar with all the days crossed off? Yeah. There's the freedom

crossed off in green tick there's. That's today up there? Yeah. This is

what we call today, day zero, transplant day. Inside this tank,

stored in liquid nitrogen, are the stem cells that could transform her

health, hopefully rebuilding her immune system free of MS. And the

lovely Louise is due her stem cells today, on the 13th. She's had all

her chemotherapy over the weekend. We're good to go. Snap, crackle and

pop! Just two bags containing two cupfuls of Louise's own stem cells

are all it takes to re-Kindle her immune system. It just takes a few

minutes to do. So the volumes are not too big actually, so they should

only take about ten minutes to go in. For nurses treating cancer, this

is routine practice. What happens to these cells is they hover around in

your circulating blood system for three or four days am then they have

like a homing mechanism on them and they migrate into the marrow. The

things are that going to rescue me. More tan 100 patients are relapsing

remitting MS are being recruited in four cities - Sheffield, Chicago,

Stockholm and Sao Paulo, to a major trial, which will report in a couple

of years and could establish this as a mainstream treatment. It's such a

small procedure really, just putting it back into me body and that's it.

We're just waiting then for the stem cells to do their work. For Paul,

it's also day zero. Like Louise, his stem cells are being transplanted.

Once they're established, both can go home.

How you doing kid, you all right? Steven is back on this ward for the

first time since his transplant. What gets me is there's no

guarantees. They won't tell you how you're going to be, which I

understand they don't know fully do they. Of course, no. You know what I

mean? Whether I'll make 100% recovery, I don't know. I'm getting

rebooted aren't I? Exactly, that's the whole point. People what

understand computers and that, you know what reboot it. Exactly, just

turn it off and restart it. It just reboots the system. That's what

Steven used to compete in It's just absolutely staggering.

Steven used to compete in triathlons. But then, out of the

blue, MS struck him down. I was crossing a road. I did not fall, I

just melted. My body was unable to get across the road and I slumped

onto the floor. Somebody came over to help me and the next day I came

into the hospital. Within nine months, Steven's condition had

deteriorated to the point where he needed 24-hour acute care. Where you

bad when you came onto the second phase? Yes. At your stage now I was

completely paralysed, unable to even move might hope, unable to do

anything. There is a point in your spinal-cord called T10. From there

down I had zero muscle sensation and zero muscle flicker.

I had a feeling it would be the rest of my life like that. I had a

conversation with my kids about mortality. The prognosis could well

have been continuing the speed of the decline, risperidone failure,

intensive care, we almost that ends. Almost immediately, the treatment

allowed his nervous system to start to recover. From day zero, the day

you get your transplant, within nine days I could flicker my toe. It felt

pretty good. I could flicker my toe. I spoke to the girls on Skype and I

think they dropped their tablet. They were not expecting that at all.

In the middle of his treatment, I am thinking, I will try my best,

whatever I can do, I pushed myself as hard as I can. When I was in this

room I made a commitment to myself, that if I ever got back to being

able to do something, I made a bucket list of various things I

wanted to do when I got out. One of the things was within a year I

wanted to take part in another event.

Just ten months later, Steven completed a mile long swim in the

Lake District. People often come up to you and say, are you locate? No

one was doing that. If you are wearing a wet suit ready to do a

race, you don't need any help, just crack on. It was great. I felt I was

back. Well done! CHEERING

But for Steven, the treatment came only after MS had done severe damage

to his nervous system, so there may be limits to his recovery.

That is one foot there. Try and get both feet on the floor first. We are

on! So this is something that you did not have the balance to do

before? No. Because of all the cycling and sport that I have done,

the muscle memory has come back pretty quickly. There seems to be a

natural feeling for it. But you have not had the bike out yet? No. I have

spoken to a few people about doing it, but I don't think my balance is

good enough yet. OK. I know what Steven's ultimate

aims are. They are big games involving running and cycling and

swimming and so on. I have always been a big goal driven guy. Emma has

identified that pretty well. I guess and aim for me would be for Steven

to be walking more than he is using the chair. That is it initially.

But if relapsing remitting MS is caught in time, could it be stopped

in its tracks? Holly Drewery was just 21 when she was diagnosed.

After giving birth to her daughter, Holly's condition deteriorated

quickly. I couldn't walk steadily. I did not trust myself holding her in

case I had a fall. I was a new mum and I wanted to do it all properly.

The MS was stopping me from being able to do it. This all happened

within a couple of months and then I had to get a wheelchair. I got worse

and worse. I could not wash myself, I couldn't dress myself. It was

scary because I thought, where is it going to end? Standard drug and

blood treatments had failed for Holly. When I was in the hospital

having the plasma exchange, Professor Sharrack said there is the

stem cell option. The treatment costs ?30,000, no more than the

yearly cost of some MS treatments which need to be taken for life.

This is you when you were tiny. Holly had the experimental

transplant and for her, the improvements were astonishing. I

started seeing changes within days of the stem cells being put back in.

I walked out of hospital, I walked into the house and cuddled Isla. I

just cried. I just cried and hugged Isla. It was all a bit overwhelming.

Was it all just a dream but I have done? Has the past month or so been

a complete dream? Yes, a miracle. A miracle. It is now two years since

Holly's stem cell transplants, and she has come back to review her

progress. I will just show you this one. This was a scan we did in 2013.

That was when you were about to have your treatment. Left untreated,

areas of active inflammation would cause permanent damage. But now,

they have all but disappeared. The good news, that is when we go to the

last scan, this is the scan which was done a few days ago. You see all

these little scars. You don't really see any evidence of disease which is

really good news. Really, this is an indication that your MS is being

quite dormant and you have not suffered further relapses. Yes.

Hello! Holly's MS has been dramatically

halted. She will need to be monitored for years but the hope is

the transplant will be a permanent fix. When I was doing my training we

had treatment for multiple sclerosis. To have a treatment which

can potentially halt the diseases a good treatment. Louise needs to

remain in isolation after having received her stem cells. She has

used the time to plan for the future. We have decided to get

married in a year off my transplant birthday, which is the 13th of

October. And we have decided to get married in the village where we had

our very first date. To see that transition from where she was to

wear she is going is great. I think that first birthday for me, I will

have got overall the hair loss, started to rebuild my life, and I

will feel the full benefit of the transplant. After 18 days, Louise

finally leaves the isolation unit. Look at you! You have changed. You

look grown-up. I am not! You do, your hair has changed and everything

and you are wearing your grown-up jumper! Give me a couple. -- give me

a cuddle. I have missed you. Poll is back home, 12 days after his

transplant. Are we going for a walk? That will get you excited, mate,

won't it?? I will bang kettle on. I have noticed improvements in that.

If I get to 100% improvement and recovery, I will be saying it is

great, the best thing in the world. When I was having the treatment, it

is quite intense and it does not queue. I would rather have done ten

rounds with Mike Tyson than go through that. But I have done it.

Ideally what the differences, you want to do a bit of walking. Before

it was like, you know. You are walking a little bit better. It is a

lot more effortless now. This is indeed a very potent

treatment and time will tell whether it is a cure or not. We need to have

longer-term follow-up which perhaps goes into decades before we can say

cure. Here is to be year of dad being out

of chemotherapy and being well and healthy and being a good dad. Steven

has reached his first transplant birthday. He is out celebrating with

his daughters. Cheers to that. A year ago I could

not even hold a fork, I could not eat.

Do you remember? Lets crack on. Stem cell

transplantation for MS is experimental and the long-term

results are unproven. But if the international trial, which Sheffield

is a part of, is a success, then many more patients might be offered

it in years to come. The day you get the stem cell jazz fusion is called

Day zero. That was the previous part of your life. This is now days zero

for the rest of your life -- the stem cell transfusion.

I was in a very dire place, through 365 days of this pioneering

treatment, to get from that point to being here, words cannot describe

it. Good afternoon, Basil. Good

afternoon. Hello, John. I will sit down there. This is marvellous. One

year since your transplant. The last time you came in, you came in a

wheelchair. You walked in today. Steven is showing the results of his

most recent scan. You look hard and you see nothing. Really? You have

walked in and this is mirrored by the scar not showing evidence of the

disease. That is good to hear. I suppose you have heard about my

surprise in the last few weeks as well. I was out with the girls and

there was a cycle hire place. I went to speak to the guys who put the

saddle on the lowest level, so I could stand on the bike without

having to balance and I just pushed off. The first couple of feet were

wobbly and really hard to get my balance. Go on, pedal, pedal, pedal!

Within ten feet, my balance had recovered and I cycled all around

the park. Cycling is something I can now do. I can swim, now cycle and

hopefully walking is the next big step.