‘I would go tomorrow... I wouldn’t even pack’

A MAN whose quality of life has been destroyed by multiple sclerosis (MS) is hoping that by turning himself into a human guinea pig he will be able to offer hope to his sister and other people who have the disease.

Vernon Mulqueeney, 39, from Newbridge, Co Kildare, was diagnosed with MS in 2002 but believes he developed symptoms of the disease eight years ago.

Mr Mulqueeney’s older sister, Laura, 41, was diagnosed with MS six months ago but the disease has not yet travelled from her spinal cord to her brain.

The married father of three young children plans to undergo expensive ground-breaking stem cell treatment in Rotterdam in June.

Mr Mulqueeney, a former truck driver, had been suffering bad headaches and loss of sight for a number of years prior to his diagnosis.

“It affects my sight; it affects my balance. I can’t walk without my walker. I can’t even stand without holding onto something. I have not driven for four years. I have not walked unaided for two years - I just don’t have the stamina for it,” he said.

Mr Mulqueeney knows his future is not looking good and will do anything to improve it. That is why he is gambling on the treatment offered by Advanced Cell Therapeutics.

“I would go tomorrow if I had the money. I would not even pack a bag.”

The three-hour treatment is expensive and that is why his family and local community have rallied round to raise the €19,500 over the next three months.

The company has yet to complete clinical trials for the treatment but Mr Mulqueeney knows it is the only chance he has of improving his future.

“It does not heal MS but what it does is stop it in its tracks,” he said.

“Use me as an example. Give me the chance and let people say ‘it worked for him’. I know it sounds far-fetched, but just imagine what you would do if you were in my shoes,” he said.

His mother, Clare Codd, also from Newbridge, who is playing a leading role in raising the money for the treatment, said it was the only chance he had.

“When you are a mother you want to fix everything and when you can’t, it is like someone has burst your bubble.”

Ms Codd said she would do anything for her five adult children.

“I don’t want to die and have it said that I could not try and help my children. If this works for Vern, it will work for Louise, who was also diagnosed with the disease six months ago.”

Ms Codd said she now felt more hopeful of a positive outcome for her son after Selina Daly from Bandon in Co Cork contacted them yesterday to say the treatment had worked for her.

“That makes you feel more positive. We know we are taking a chance but Vern feels this is his last chance because he is failing fairly rapidly now,” she said.

While Multiple Sclerosis Ireland (MSI) encourages all research to find a cure for MS it does not accept that the current use of stem cells is an effective and safe method of treatment.

MSI points out that stem cell treatment is only in the initial stages of research and the medical profession has yet to publish conclusive evidence of its benefits in MS treatment.

MSI chief executive Dr Graham Love said: “Research into stem cell therapy is exciting and may one day lead to treatments for MS. However, without proof from the accepted channels we cannot support its use in the treatment of MS.”

* A special bank account has been opened by Ms Codd in Ulster Bank, Newbridge, Co Kildare, to which donations for her son’s treatment can be sent. The account number is 44824096, and the sort code is 986220.