The treatment
Ms. Ward said everything is becoming more real now that most of the money is in the bank.
“I am a little bit nervous, but it’s going to happen,” Ms. Ward said. “My credit card would have got the brunt of it anyway, but this makes it so much more special that the people are helping me go. It’s wonderful.”
The price tag on the treatment she will be receiving is $4,500, but the trip will cost her $15,000.
Ms. Ward first learned about the treatment on a television show W5 and then heard a story of a woman in Labrador who had travelled to Europe for the treatment and had success.
Through Dr. Paolo Zamboni’s studies of chronic venous insufficiency (CCSVI), he determined that the symptoms of MS could be alleviated.
According to the MS Society of Canada, the condition involves “a hypothetical disruption of blood flow in which the venous system is not able to efficiently move blood from the central nervous system, resulting in increased pressure in the veins of the brain and spinal cords, which in turn results in damage to these areas.”
The treatment involves an angioplasty-like procedure to open the blocked vein with a small balloon.
Ms. Ward said she will leave on Oct. 8 and arrive in Poland on Oct. 9.
“If I have the blockages, I don’t know if I do yet, but if I have the blockages, they’ll do the treatment on Oct. 14,” Ms. Ward said. “I come home on Oct. 16. It’s only a 25- to 40-minute procedure. I am awake all through.”
The treatment is not performed in Canada, however, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Minister Jerome Kenney recently announced that Newfoundland and Labrador will take part in national clinical trials of the treatment, and the provincial government will provide some funding for the trials.
“The governments are coming on board now saying they are going to do studies and pay for the studies but that’s going to be years coming I would say,” Ms. Ward said, adding her treatment will be long over before that time. “It’s only for a simple procedure, I don’t know what the big deal is that they are not doing it here.”
She said she believes it is great that the Newfoundland and Labrador government has come on board.
“I have a friend who lives in Botwood, she has MS, and she is bedridden so she can’t take it on herself to go all this way to Poland,” Ms. Ward said. “There are also people that are not financially stable to go. They don’t have the town behind them like I do. It’s just fantastic that they are going to get their chance as well.”
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