Stem cells give woman her life back

Megan Strachan, with her dog Ollie, suffers from scleroderma - a rare disease in which the immune system attacks the body. Picture: Norm Oorloff Source: Herald Sun

AS Megan Strachan strolls near her Drouin home, it is difficult to believe that a year ago she was crippled by an incurable disease causing her body to harden and consume itself.

She believes an experimental stem cell transplant has freed up her limbs from the effects of scleroderma - when the immune system attacks victims' skin so it hardens and cannot move.

It can affects joints and lead to organ failure.

The jury is out on whether controversial stem cell treatments can impact the disease that affects up to 5000 Australians, but Ms Strachan is thrilled to have her life back.

"At the time of the transplant I was bedridden. All my joints had contracted, so they were all bent and I couldn't stand up straight because my skin was hard from head to toe," Ms Strachan said.

"Slowly, but surely, over the course of the two years, my skin started softening and I was able to straighten my arms."

Diagnosed just before turning 30, within four months Ms Strachan had to give up her job as a nurse and then moved in with her parents to be looked after.

With no frontline treatment, Ms Strachan talked to an expert in Switzerland, who put her on to haematologist Dr John Moore. He was pioneering autologous stem cell transplants at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital.

Dr Moore's process involves returning a patient's stem cells in conjunction with chemotherapy, with the toxic drugs responsible for killing off the immune system's attack while stem cells offset the treatment's side-effects.

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Stem cells give woman her life back