Huge response to teacher’s MS fund
£21k raised towards life-changing treatment goal
An appeal lauched to help a muchloved Balfron teacher secure life-changing MS treatment has smashed through the £20,000 mark in just five days.
Jennifer MacKay, 43, who works as a pupil support teacher at Balfron High, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) earlier this year following a sharp decline in her movement since 2017.
After researching her options, Jennifer now hopes to raise £50,000 to afford special haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) treatment which aims to slow down the progress of the condition - with the best options to receive the treatment being in Russia and Mexico.
With Jennifer and husband Stuart who is headteacher at Dunblane High - considering their options to afford the treatment, sisters Ally and Elaine decided to start up a fundraising page - which has been inundated with financial support and good wishes since going live last week.
The sisters explain, on the page: “Over the past few years, the people who care about Jenny have watched as the loving caring and strongest woman we know has had her body turn against her.
“Jenny used to run, spin, do HIIT classes and work out in the gym regularly. Then she couldn’t run at all, and soon she couldn’t walk for very long distances.”
Jennifer told the Observer: “I started noticing a weakness in my leg which started when I was running and it gradually just got weaker and then it affected me going to gym classes.
“I had been referred to hospital and had MRI scans and the doctors said the left leg weakness was down to a protruding disc in my back.
“They were about to offer me a back operation in the summer and I asked them if they were sure it wasn’t anything else and so they did an MRI scan on my brain to rule out anything else and that’s when they came back with the MS diagnosis.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since then; I love nothing more than going on long walks and going up hills but longer distances are getting harder as time goes on, although I’m still working and mobile around the school.
“I didn’t have an inkling about MS, I knew a little bit about it and knew it would deteriorate as time went on.”
Multiple sclerosis is a degenerative condition which affects the nervous system and can cause lingering disability - with no certain timeline over the progression of the disease.
Faced with the new reality, Jennifer quickly began researching treatment options and discovered HSCT, an intensive chemotherapy-based procedure which stops the damage caused by MS by wiping out and regrowing the patient’s immune system using stem cells.
The treatment is offered in the UK, but the criteria for treatment on the NHS is strict and Jennifer will not be offered the treatment on these shores, which necessitates the need to travel abroad.
At time of going to press, the GoFundMe page had raised £21,450 towards the goal with Jennifer labelling the response from the community as “humbling”.
She said: “There is a charity which has been set up to raise awareness of HSCT treatment in the UK and there is loads of information on their website, including lots of success stories from people who have had it.
“The success rates are quite high in halting the progress of MS and I felt it just seemed as if that’s what I had to look into rather than sitting here and waiting, doing nothing.
“It’s very expensive to cobble the journey out there together so people said to do a fundraising page and I’ve just been overwhelmed with the support.
“It makes me feel so appreciated and cared for, I never thought so many people would reach out to me and contribute financially, it’s just so humbling.
“I knew it was going to be hard emotionally when I put this out there but both the staff and the kids have been so kind and sharing the page.
“This treatment isn’t guaranteed but the percentage is very high and the impact could be life changing in terms of being able to keep working and doing things with my three children.”
To donate and show your support, you can visit the page at gofundme.com/f/ jennys-hsct-journey.
The treatment isn’t guaranteed but the percentage is very high and the impact could be life-changing Jennifer MacKay