LOUGHTON: 'Help me hug my daughter again' - plea from critically ill mum (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

LOUGHTON: 'Help me hug my daughter again' - plea from critically ill mum

11:50am Monday 6th February 2012 in Epping Forest News By Clare Hardy

FRIENDS of a mum who cannot cuddle her five-year-old daughter because of a crippling disease are raising money for pioneering treatment.

Dawn White, 40, of Southern Drive, Loughton, suffers from an aggressive form of motor neurone disease, which has left her almost completely unable to move or talk.

Her only hope of slowing down or reversing the effects of the disease is to have experimental stem cell treatment at a clinic in Switzerland, which costs £18,000.

“My daughter Eliza has only just turned five and since she was four, she has lost an interactive mum,” she said. “When she cries, I can’t put my arms around her to cuddle her, which is heartbreaking.

“For me, I feel like I have just disappeared. My whole life has drastically changed.

“I’m unable to do anything except verbally communicate with everyone and now my speech is going too.”

The treatment, which is so experimental it has not yet been approved for use in the UK, involves injecting her will cells taken from her own body.

She has travelled to the clinic in Zurich once so far and plans to make day trips there for the rest of her treatment, which will last six to nine months.

“It's a long way to travel in one day, for one injection,” she said. “It doesn't seem right that in this country you can inject yourself with Botox and have unregulated cosmetic surgery and yet something that may save my life is not allowed.

“When there is nothing else available for motor neurone disease suffers I really have no choice.”

She relies on her husband, Matt, for most of her care and her friends want to be able to pay for more professional care.

“I hate the fact that I have to ask people, especially my husband, to help me to do the simplist things, like have a drink or scratch my nose,” she added.

Her friends and family are planning a cabaret night at Gilwell Park in Epping Forest next Saturday (February 18) and an evening of alternative therapy, including massage and Reiki at the Old Golden Lion pub in Borders Lane, Debden, from 11am until 3pm the following day.

For more information, visit www.friendsofdawn.co.uk.

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