33-year-old Iris Weststrate from Heemskerk has an aggressive form of the neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) and is raising money for treatment in Mexico. This stem cell therapy could improve her chances of living without MS. Now she is indoors twenty-four hours a day due to her illness. “I just want to go to the playground with my son.”
Before she was diagnosed with MS – diagnosed in 2011 – Iris Weststrate (33) trained as a cosmetologist and had a busy social life. Her world has now become a lot smaller. They has never been able to practice her profession and zinside it all day.
“I prefer to do fun things with my son, just like other parents, but that’s just too hard,” says Iris. “I can’t lift him in and out of a car and take him with me all the time.”
“If I had another attack now, I would be permanently in a wheelchair”
You can pick him up even though it hurts a lot. She can also walk (stairs) in the house, but as soon as she wants to go outside, she has to use a wheelchair. And she still refuses to do so for the time being. “But if I had another attack now, I would be in it permanently.”
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NH News speaks with Iris if she has just had corona among the members. “Then all MS complaints play an extra role. I was even completely paralyzed from my toes to my waist, I couldn’t get out of bed at night to urinate.” Fortunately, Iris has help from her mother, who visits several mornings a week.
Kans
For 65,000 euros she can undergo stem cell therapy in Mexico, which would increase the chance that the MS will disappear from her body for some time and that she will not end up in that wheelchair. This treatment is not yet available in the Netherlands and is not reimbursed by the health insurer. That is why a foundation has been set up for Iris to collect the money for the treatment.
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Multiple sclerosis a stem cell therapy
In people with MS, the immune system is disrupted and inflammation occurs in the central nervous system. Stem cell therapy can give a kind of ‘reset’ to the immune system. The Dutch Association of Neurology (NVN) states that this therapy should be made available to a specific group of MS patients. The MS Research Foundation and the National MS Fund endorse this position. A study is currently underway at the Amsterdam UMC into the possibility of offering stem cell therapy in the Netherlands.
In many ways, family and friends have drawn attention to the fundraising campaign in the area. “My mother’s friend made a mural on De Oever graffiti wall in Beverwijk,” says Iris. “Unfortunately, it has now been repainted.”
There is still a donation column in the supermarket on the Beverwijkse Wijkerbaan, in which people can throw their deposit slip for Iris. There are also donation boxes and flyers in several places in Heemskerk and Beverwijk.
“And my mother organized a flea market with second-hand baby clothes and toys in Uitgeest and Zaandam, in the munitions factory,” says Iris. “We raised 600 euros with that.”
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With these actions and the support of the environment, 36,000 euros have now been collected, which means that there is still 29,000 euros to go. That money must be received at the clinic in Mexico at the end of December, where Iris is scheduled for therapy in March. “If I can get this treatment, there’s a really good chance of progress. And I just want that. I want to get rid of this stupid MS.”
Iris doesn’t mind that the treatment will be tough and she will probably lose her hair. “I’m in an app group with people who will also do that therapy in March, and we can only be positive about that. Of course it will be tough, and I have to miss my son for 28 days, but what is that one month compared to the rest of your life?”
Click here for the donation campaign.