{"id":761,"date":"2016-11-04T18:56:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T13:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/?p=761"},"modified":"2025-10-23T19:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:10:39","slug":"dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories of Hope: Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps Just Days After Pioneering MS Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>html { scroll-behavior: smooth; scroll-padding-top: 5em; .table_of_contents {margin: 25px 0; padding: 10px; background: #F2F5F7;} .table_of_contents a { text-decoration: none; }}<\/style><div class='table_of_contents'><h3>Table of Contents<\/h3><ul><\/ul><\/div><p>Jandy Nelson of \u2018I&#8217;ll Give You the Sun\u2019 said, \u201cYou have to see the miracles for there to be miracles.\u201d And that is exactly what I witnessed.<\/p>\n<p>My next door neighbor in Jowitt Road, Hartlepool (UK) Eric Thomson had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) almost four years ago. A father of five, his condition deteriorated extremely quickly to the stage where he lost the use of his right hand and leg. He feared that he would never ever walk or play with his children again. Confined to a wheelchair, he was unable to carry out even basic day to day tasks like washing himself, making a cup of tea and cutting up his own food.<\/p>\n<p>NHS in the UK informed Eric and his family that there was no further treatment available that could help Eric get better. After tons of research online, they heard of the Riaz Clinic in Mexico where he could receive a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. The NHS in the UK does not offer HSCT as a therapeutic option for MS patients. However, it is currently under trials, according to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, all Eric hoped was to stop this rapid progression of the condition further and restore some form of mobility in the affected area of the body. He was even willing to try stem cell therapy to be able to do that.<\/p>\n<p>Different from most cells in the body, stem cells are often claimed to be &#8216;building blocks in the body that carries with it the potential to develop and multiply into various cell types. The tissue additionally acts as an intramural reparation system that proliferates and replaces cells as they die out.<\/p>\n<p>Eric\u2019s family and friends raised GBP 40,000 which was the full cost of the operation. A very close family friend, Angela Crowe led this campaign and organized various events including a Calendar Girls style calendar, a Ben Nevis Trek and numerous fundraising nights.<\/p>\n<p>Eric with his wife Joanna traveled to the clinic on June 19<sup>th<\/sup>. Arriving at the clinic, he went through a series of fitness assessments and rounds of chemotherapy before progressing towards stem cell transplantation.<\/p>\n<p>The transplant took place on July 3<sup>rd<\/sup>. During the procedure, the medical team extracted the stem cells from the blood. Chemotherapy was then used to wipe out the diseased cells in the system. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/about-stem-cells\">stem cells<\/a> were then injected into Eric\u2019s body to restart the system.<\/p>\n<p>Just days after the surgery, Eric felt a difference and was able to regain some mobility in his right hand. \u00a0He was so happy and this is what he said, \u201cI am not joking when I say I have seen some superb improvements already. I am 6ft tall again and getting feeling in my right hand, so the guitar might be making a comeback. It\u2019s amazing what 377 million stem cells do. I knew it could take up to two years before there may be any results, so to get that result so quickly has been amazing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic, who motivated him towards a speedy recovery. \u201cMy treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia,\u201d said Eric.<\/p>\n<p>He landed in the UK on July 17<sup>th<\/sup>, just a month after the surgery. Ever since the day Eric was diagnosed with MS four years ago, his family had been compelled to witness this devastating deterioration and how his entire life had undergone this change. This dramatic progress in his state not just uplifted his health and morale but was liberating for his family too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Table of ContentsJandy Nelson of \u2018I&#8217;ll Give You the Sun\u2019 said, \u201cYou have to see the miracles for there to be miracles.\u201d And that is exactly what I witnessed. My next door neighbor in Jowitt Road, Hartlepool (UK) Eric Thomson had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) almost four years ago. A father of five, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,14,35],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps After Pioneering MS Surgery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic. My treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps After Pioneering MS Surgery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic. My treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stem Cell Banking Guide and Pregnancy Tips For New Parents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-04T13:26:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-23T14:10:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Stories-of-Hope-Multiple-Sclerosis2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cordlife India\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cordlife India\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cordlife India\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7a6ac890dea585e4e352f0d70e7e9833\"},\"headline\":\"Stories of Hope: Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps Just Days After Pioneering MS Surgery\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-04T13:26:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-23T14:10:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\"},\"wordCount\":619,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"stem cell\",\"stem cell banking\",\"stem cell therapy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pregnancy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\",\"name\":\"Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps After Pioneering MS Surgery\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-04T13:26:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-23T14:10:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic. My treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stories of Hope: Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps Just Days After Pioneering MS Surgery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Stem Cell Banking Guide and Pregnancy Tips For New Parents\",\"description\":\"Cordlife India\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Cordlife Sciences India Pvt Ltd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/CordLife_Logo_201505.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/CordLife_Logo_201505.png\",\"width\":618,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"Cordlife Sciences India Pvt Ltd\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7a6ac890dea585e4e352f0d70e7e9833\",\"name\":\"Cordlife India\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab124aeff50abe10ffe4fb8872ef6c57?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab124aeff50abe10ffe4fb8872ef6c57?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cordlife India\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/author\/avijit-paul\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps After Pioneering MS Surgery","description":"Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic. My treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps After Pioneering MS Surgery","og_description":"Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic. My treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/","og_site_name":"Stem Cell Banking Guide and Pregnancy Tips For New Parents","article_published_time":"2016-11-04T13:26:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-23T14:10:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Stories-of-Hope-Multiple-Sclerosis2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Cordlife India","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cordlife India","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/"},"author":{"name":"Cordlife India","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7a6ac890dea585e4e352f0d70e7e9833"},"headline":"Stories of Hope: Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps Just Days After Pioneering MS Surgery","datePublished":"2016-11-04T13:26:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-23T14:10:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/"},"wordCount":619,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["stem cell","stem cell banking","stem cell therapy"],"articleSection":["Pregnancy"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/","name":"Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps After Pioneering MS Surgery","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-11-04T13:26:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-23T14:10:39+00:00","description":"Eric felt that the team at the Riaz clinic was fantastic. My treatment has finished and I am now just undergoing regular blood and neutropenia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/dad-eric-takes-ms-surgery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stories of Hope: Hartlepool Dad Eric Takes First Steps Just Days After Pioneering MS Surgery"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/","name":"Stem Cell Banking Guide and Pregnancy Tips For New Parents","description":"Cordlife India","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Cordlife Sciences India Pvt Ltd","url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/CordLife_Logo_201505.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/CordLife_Logo_201505.png","width":618,"height":270,"caption":"Cordlife Sciences India Pvt Ltd"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7a6ac890dea585e4e352f0d70e7e9833","name":"Cordlife India","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab124aeff50abe10ffe4fb8872ef6c57?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab124aeff50abe10ffe4fb8872ef6c57?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cordlife India"},"url":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/author\/avijit-paul\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8493,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/8493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cordlifeindia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}