Audrey Jones flew 10,000 miles to China for revolutionary stem cell treatment


Audrey's China lifeline
Marie Burchill
15/ 2/2008

FORMER Lord Mayor Audrey Jones, who flew to China for pioneering surgery on a deadly brain disease, said the treatment has changed her life.

The councillor, who was bound to a wheelchair before the stem cell treatment, returned walking unaided after undergoing the controversial procedure.

Audrey, 74, suffers from cerebellar atrophy - a condition similar to motor neurone disease that affects one in 100,000 people.

The mother-of-four had to fork out £10,000 for the trip after doctors said it was her only chance of survival.

She was the first person to have stem cell treatment at Qingdao Hospital, a new specialist clinic for cerebellar atrophy.

While Audrey will always have to live with the degenerative disorder, she hopes the treatment means she has years of life ahead of her.

She said the 30-day 10,000-mile round trip was worth `every penny'.

Audrey, who paid for the procedure with her children's inheritance, said: "Obviously I was reluctant to use what was supposed to be money for them, but they said all they wanted was for me to get better.

"I feel brilliant. Some of my children met me at the airport and were absolutely overwhelmed when they saw the positive change in my condition.

"I used to have to rely on people to help me up and down the stairs and now I can manage it by myself."

Audrey, from Heaton Road, Withington, added: "People were saying to me, `How do you know it's going to be any good?' But when you haven't got many options and it's all down-hill if you don't do something, all you can do is try. So I just decided to go for it."

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