Mount Gambier’s Sarah McDowell will travel to Mexico next year to undergo potentially life-changing treatment for her Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
The treatment costs $85,000 and additionally she has to pay for her flight and a carer to remain with her during the four-week treatment, bumping the cost up to approximately $95,000.
To help fund the costly treatment, Ms McDowell created a GoFundMe page, ‘Sarah & Cali beat MS together’.
Ms McDowell works as a high school teacher at Tenison Woods College and was diagnosed with MS at the end of December 2017.
“In a school assembly my eyesight started going blurry and I could not see properly,” she said.
“Then the right side of my face went numb, followed quickly by my right hand, arm and my right leg, which all went completely numb within an hour.”
Ms McDowell was taken to hospital with a suspected stroke and discharged the same afternoon with what was said to be a migraine.
However, she had never suffered migraines before, so she requested a magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) from her doctor and was diagnosed with MS the following week, which she said was extremely scary.
“I actually had one of the doctors come into me while I was in ED after the diagnosis and say that she did not think that I realised how severe the diagnosis was,” she said.
“She explained to me that it is possible to go completely blind overnight and not regain your eyesight, that really did put the fear into me.”
In January 2018, Ms McDowell underwent a leukaemia treatment which had a strong chance of halting the disease for several years, however this was unsuccessful and she relapsed within six months.
She has since been on another treatment, however she continues to relapse with debilitating symptoms including neuropathic pain where her feet felt like they were on fire for six weeks straight and an inability to initiate swallowing, therefore choking on everything.
Ms McDowell’s assistance dog, Cali the border collie, has supported her the entire way and has accompanied her to every treatment, MRI and neurological appointment.
“She has been that constant support the whole way through,” Ms McDowell said.
“When I was first diagnosed and told that I might go blind overnight, it was just so nice having her cuddling into me.”
Cali has competed at the world championships, placed at agility competitions in the United Kingdom and won multiple state champion titles in Australia.
However, the champion canine has had a bumpy ride with her own health, being the first dog in Australia to receive a $30,000 medical stoma treatment after her bowel ruptured twice last year.
“I put everything into saving her and it has kind of flipped around now,” Ms McDowell said.
When Ms McDowell returns from Mexico she will be confined to house isolation for a significant period allowing her immune system to ‘rebuild from scratch’.
The treatment has an 85%-95% chance of halting the disease for seven to 10 years or more.
“This would mean no more treatment, no more progression, life can just carry on as normal as if I do not have MS,” she said.
“Current treatments available to myself in Australia just slow the progression of the disease, so it’s a sense of relief to actually be trying something positive towards halting the disease.
“MS is either a slow or fast path to accumulated disability, which is terrifying and that’s hard to live with in itself, whereas this treatment gives a sense of hope.
“I want to do everything that I can now to try and prevent that disability from happening, I do not feel like I can just sit back and not try this treatment.”
A son of one of Ms McDowell’s friends, Alex McDonald, showed support by shaving his head and kept the hair so it could be made into a wig for her to wear after the treatment.
Visit www.gofund.me/4b25ed4c to make a donation to Ms McDowell’s GoFundMe or search ‘Sarah & Cali beat MS together’.
