Hair today, gone tomorrow - mum having head shaved to help sick daughter

Shaver

A Rochdale mother is sacrificing her hair in order to try and raise enough money to fund stem cell treatment in Rotterdam for her daughter Tina Kay, an MS sufferer. Betty Wood is having her head shaved on the 12 March at The St Alban's Hotel on Manchester Road.

The pub regulars also have other events planned to try and help Tina of Bradshaw Street, Middleton raise the £13,000 she needs.

Mother Betty explained: "Tina suffers lots of bladder infections, her eyesight is very bad in one eye, and she gets spasms in her legs and as a result has problems bending her leg to get into transport. She uses a wheelchair now to get around, but she still bangs herself a lot and her body is always covered in bruises. She has a lot of pride and tried everything she could not to have to use a wheelchair but in the end she had to use one. She has tried to get on with her life as best as she can; she has two little girls and it upsets her not to be able to do things with them that other mums can do."

Stem cells are the primordial cells in the human body. The first stem cells occur inside a developing embryo (blastocyst). These embryonic stem cells are understood to be totipotent (capable of differentiating into every cell type). They divide and differentiate to ultimately construct the entire human body.

Many of the currently incurable diseases associated with aging are caused by the degeneration of specific cell types in the body. These include but are not limited to: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases (including Multiple Sclerosis) and auto immune conditions.

Stem Cell Therapy involves the introduction of healthy new stem cells to repair and replace damaged or lost cells. This therapy, often referred to as Regenerative Medicine provides much promise for the treatment of what was previously regarded as incurable diseases.

Stem cells are harvested from a number of sources including human fetuses aborted between 1 and 3 months, hence their use is still controversial and the treatment is not licensed in this country.

Betty says: "Stem cell treatment does not work the same for everybody, but there have been lots of good reports about it. Tina says it is very important to her, if it just helps her to get out of the wheelchair and be able to walk with a stick. She has got a lot worse in the last year, and it could be twelve years or more before stem cell treatment is available in this country. In that time she could get a lot worse. It might not work for her, but I feel she deserves the chance to have this treatment as soon as she can get it, she is so very brave and is still trying hard not to let it get her down."