“When I look back, I realize that I started displaying symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) around the age of 18. Just before I graduated from high school in 1998, I noticed that I was getting very tired quite often, thinking it was due to a lack of sleep. By 22, I began to feel numbness in my fingertips,” recalls Shaneel Valera, “Shortly after that, my family and friends noticed that I would occasionally veer off to the side when I was walking straight, but we all just thought I was being clumsy, in fact if someone else did the same thing we would say: ‘you pulled a Shaneel’.”
When symptoms began progressing, a friend of Shaneel’s urged her to get tested for MS, after having done some research. Shaneel was officially diagnosed in February of 2005, and by end of 2006, she was no long able to walk independently. This progressive form of MS left her unable to work by September of 2007. Though Shaneel’s symptoms were not slowing down, it wasn’t until six years later in 2013 when Shaneel had a severe “MS attack,” that her case got so severe that it affected her “physically, mentally and emotionally as it had completely stripped [her] of [her] independence.”
“Before the diagnosis, I was in my early 20’s and in the prime of my life: I was working 2 jobs that I loved, I had attended college, I was going out and travelling with my girlfriends; I was really enjoying life,” Shaneel shared. One month ago, Shaneel’s family started a GoFundMe campaign to rally financial support for her progressive treatment with positive results leading to a higher quality of life, decreasing the severity of her symptoms. “There are no guarantees, but I’m keeping optimistic that my body will respond well to this treatment and that it will enable me to get my life back,” Shaneel says. More than $61,000 has been donated to date.
GoFundMe is the world’s number one personal fundraising website, providing a platform for people to organize their own campaign to raise money for personal causes and life events and invite those in their community to support their fundraising. In BC, more than $25.1 million has been raised through GoFundMe to date, with $3.2 million raised in Vancouver alone.
About Shaneel’s treatment
The two major components of this treatment are the CCSVI procedure and Stem Cell therapy.
Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is when the veins in the neck & head are narrowed or blocked (in my case completely blocked and narrowed) and unable to remove blood from the central nervous system. This CCSVI procedure is an angioplasty, which unblocks the veins. Unfortunately, this procedure is not approved in Canada.
The type of stem cells that will be used in treatment will be Mesenchymal stem cells. They will be administered during and after the CCSVI procedure. Stem Cells help the affected areas of the body repair and regenerate itself. The MS society of Canada is currently conducting phase II clinical trials of this treatment, but like the CCSVI procedure, it is not yet approved in Canada.
For more information or to donate, go to Shaneel's GoFundMe page.
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