193 – MS and Stem Cells

• Close-ups of faces are good but still leave “breathing space” around the frame. Too many women had their faces look bulging unnecessarily.
• Shots with friends are confusing, especially with friends who are hotter than you.
• No blurb.

NEWS: Maurice’s Symphony has been shortlisted for Best Short Film at the 2017 SA Screen Awards. We interviewed Producer Andrei Gostin and Director Alex Nakone.

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In mid-2015, Adelaide mum, Ainsley Maconochie, heading to Israel with one of her sisters so she could undergo state-of-the-art stem cell treatment to slow down her Multiple Sclerosis. Ainsley had just become a mum and was determined to do what she could to make sure she remained as highly functional as possible, to see her daughter through schooling and into adulthood. One of our listeners from Tasmania, Matt, who was intrigued by our chat with Ainsley in episode 90, has asked us recently for an update on Ainsley, so here she is.

Can you remember how you felt in the immediate lead up to your Israel jaunt?

Just before we find out how things have progressed for you, since your Israel treatment, let’s recap the main bullet points of your life with MS up until that time.

Was the stem cell procedure a success?

Do you feel different?

What are the predicted outcomes of HSCT

Why did you choose such an extreme treatment option

Explain what the treatment was like

Have you achieved what you had hoped

How has life improved

How should we act around a friend or colleague diagnosed with a condition like MS

 Nigel challenges the panel to pick the fake story from three stories from South Australia’s past.

The Advertiser February 1947
X-ray Preferred To Radioactive Matter
It was pointed out in Adelaide yesterday that the use of radio- active sodium phosphate in the treatment of leukaemia had been used experimentally over the past nine years. The Anti-Cancer Campaign Committee of the University of Adelaide said yesterday that it had followed the use of radioactive phosphorus in this treatment over the past few years with a good deal of interest. However, all the evidence available indicated that the treatment of choice was by means of deep X-rays. From all the reports of results received in Adelaide, the new treatment was not any better than the radium treatment; in fact, was not as good. It was also very expensive, and attempts to raise
false hopes as to its efficacy were to be deprecated.

Sydney Morning Herald August 1961
ATOM BOMB EFFECTS AFTER EIGHT YEARS
Aborigines who witnessed the Operation Totem atomic blasts at Emu Field in South Australia, apparently completely unharmed at the time, are now dying from the effects of radiation, eight years later. The latest is a youth of 17, who was many miles from the centre of the blast and outside of the exclusion zone but who was downwind of the fallout. Four months ago he became subject to fainting spells and was discovered to be suffering from fatal leukemia (a disparity between red and white corpuscles jn the blood stream). His counts of white and red corpuscles were found to be 50,000 and 1,300,000 respectively, compared with the normal counts of 7,000 to 8,000 and 5,000,000. After three months, the red count had shrunk to 510,000 and the white count had increased to 60,000. Atomic specialists diagnosed his case as hopeless, and he died. Royal Adelaide Hospital authorities disclosed later that three out of five patients who suffered from atomic leukemia died last year and that three others died the previous year.

The Advertiser May 1948
CANCER THOUGHT DUE TO VIRUS
U.S. Comment On S.A. Research
Dr. J. B. Thiersch’s Adelaide research on the transmission of human leukaemia (cancer of the blood) to chicks shows that cancer is a virus disease, according to Dr. Duran Reynals, virus authority of Yale University. USA. The chairman of the Adelaide University Anti-Cancer Committee said yesterday that at least three different schools of thought at present attributed cancer respectively to a virus, hormonal stimulants and inherited susceptibility.