Stem Cells Offer New Hope
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007The Canadian Press
By Michelle Ruby
Ontario girl with rare disorder seeks treatment in China
BRANTFORD, Ont. — Lori Keeping and daughter Jamie will travel next month to China where the five-year-old will have a costly and controversial stem-cell treatment that her family hopes will save her life.
Jamie has Batten disease — a rare and degenerative illness that renders its young victims blind, speechless and paralyzed before it kills them.
The Brantford, Ont., girl was about three when she was diagnosed. She can’t walk or talk and is fed from a tube. The family suspects she is blind.
She, her mother and Keeping’s mother will leave for Beijing on Feb. 12.
The trip to China and the stem-cell treatment, expected to cost up to $50,000, will be covered through public donations. Fundraising events and contributions to a trust account set up for Jamie, and her brother, Carson, who also suffers from Batten, amount to just over $100,000.
“We feel hopeful,” Keeping said in a recent interview. “It (the treatment) gives us something to look forward to.”