She’s on the long road to recovery.
Mother of two Anja Etty, who has multiple sclerosis, is back home in Meltham after a gruelling 28-day course of treatment in Mexico aimed at halting the spread of the disease.
The former sales manager was able to walk unaided for the first time in four years on Monday when she took a stroll in the rain around the village. She described it as “incredible” and a “miracle.”
But she stressed: “I walked 0.8 miles yesterday (Mon) but today I am so tired I’m back in bed. I can feel fit to work one day and the next I have no strength. It’s massively up and down and there are days when I feel worse than I did before the treatment.”
Anja, who raised £55,000 to travel to Mexico and pay for her treatment, said it would be two years before she knows if her condition has stabilised. Until then, she will have to receive infusions of a drug, Rituximab, every two months for the next year to kill off any remaining harmful cells following the chemotherapy she received in Mexico.
She does not qualify for treatment under the NHS and is attending a private hospital in Manchester for the infusions and the blood tests needed before each treatment. Anja is paying for the infusions from the funds she raised initially, but also has to find £2,500 for the blood tests.
Anja, mother to Taia and Tolly, was diagnosed with MS in 1999. She had to give up work and her mobility suffered. She had to use a wheelchair and could only walk short distances using crutches.
At the clinic in Puebla, Mexico, she underwent Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) treatment to “reset” the immune system by removing stem cells from her blood, freezing them and re-introducing them into the bloodstream following chemotherapy to “clear out” the existing immune system.
The treatment is available on the NHS only for people who have had MS for less than 15 years. Anja said she receives no support from the NHS and had to buy the antibiotics she will need for the next six months while in Mexico.
Now she is facing the future positively – and has appealed on for a personal trainer to provide a schedule of exercises for her. “I have no muscle strength,” said Anja. “It’s knowing what I should be doing to improve my fitness. I want to make the most of life.”
