INTERNATIONAL EDUCATORS WITHOUT BORDERS

The Marathon of Hope (Part XI)

By Prof. Talaat I. Farag

 

No one is immune from having a health crisis at some point in her/his life journey. Babies may be born with major congenital anomalies, children in the pre-school age may suffer from autism, accidents may occur at any age, and with increasing life expectancies, many diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's are much more common today. The first article of this series presented a countdown of eight inspirational stories of heroism over debilitating physical ailments. The following real-life stories illustrate the remarkable achievements of different people suffering from varying health problems and adversities that serve as examples of how crises can be overcome. The extraordinary achievements of the Canadian runner Terry Fox and American cyclist Lance Armstrong were featured in the January 2007 issue. They have become some of the most prominent symbols of battle against disease in the modern age. In this tenth part of the series, I present the stories of 10 people who have battled various medical problems and adversities or helped change the way we combat disabilities.

Hope of Stem Cells?

Dr. Michael Rudnicki is The Head of the Institute of Regenerative Medicine program and director of the Sprotts Center for Stem Cell Research which was launched in 2006 after Bay Street Manager Eric Sprott and his w Vizma donated $7 million to establish an endowment fund. This facility houses a range of staff from researchers, clinicians, computer scientists and bioinformation specialists. They derive stem cells from adults, fetal and embryonic tissue. These master cells can develop into different specialized cells and repair damage to the body. They discovered a protein WNT7a which stimulates the growth and repair of muscle tissue and can lead to new treatment for muscular dystrophy. He tested this protein on mice. It may cure everything from heart disease to injury and neurodevelopmental disease.

Lauren Woolstencroft—Paralympic hero

The winner of five gold medals in the 2010 Paralympics in Beijing despite the fact that she has no legs, entered Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame last November. Many people helped this four-year old disabled child with no legs beneath her knees to be an alpine skier.

Matthew Sheppard—The Battle with Dystonia

Dystonia causes involuntary muscular contractions which force the body into strange movements. It may affect a particular body part or entire areas like the limbs or torso. These include writers cramps or can interrupt talking, walking or the ability to function in daily life. Matthew, a 13-year old, is not able to feed himself or perform simple tasks, such as pouring water into a glass. His inability to write and other simple tasks has set him behind in the school. His family who live in Toronto are hopeful that brain surgery will help. Deep brain stimulation involves drilling deep holes in the skull, implanting electrodes in the brain and inserting wires that connect them to a moderator and battery back in the chest to lessen the symptoms of dystonia. The disorder affects tens of thousands of Canadians and is the second most common motor disorder after Parkinson’s disease. William Orloski, an award winning Canadian tap dancer said generalized dystonia cut his career short in the 1990s and continued until he was wheelchair-bound. He underwent a 10 hour surgery in 2006 and now at the age of 59, he has made a remarkable recovery after the procedure.  He performed a simple tap routine at an international festival in British Columbia after the operation.

Adrian Turner and the Vision for Autistic Children

The 40 million Kae Martin Campus (KMC) researchers will work alongside 520 people with autism who will live there and be educated to become self-sufficient independent adults. The patron of this center is Sophie the Countess of Wessex, the wife of the Queen’s youngest son Edward. She is also the patron of the New Haven Learning Center in Etobicoke, an education facility for autistic children. Autism is a growing burden in society in Ontario. Autism is a neurological disorder that affects individuals in the way they communicate with others and adapt to their environment. In Ontario alone, there is more than 100,000 people living with autism, and about a quarter of them are under 20 years. The KMC advocates the late Kae Martin whose grandchild was diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder.

Paul Poirier and Bikers Against Brain Cancer

The 43-year old Ontario chiropractor has been struggling with brain cancer for 16 years.  He is currently organizing a Terry Fox-esque biking tour scheduled to tour different provinces to raise awareness of and funds for brain cancer research which affects 2,700 new cases in Canada each year. The tumor was in his left frontal lobe was removed and he was given chemotherapy after this.

Aubrey Francis and Neurofeedback therapy

Francis was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disease in 2003 after returning from Afghanistan. In 2008, he had to leave the service after flashbacks and nightmares until a therapy called neurofeedback gave him some relief. Designed to help people influence the activity of their brainwaves, it changes how people deal with a problem facing 1 in 10 Canadians. He has an anxiety disorder linked to depression which was treated before by drugs and talk therapy. Neurofeedback was once seen as an alternative treatment but preliminary studies suggest it could help with several brain disorders.

Maxine Tynes, a black Canadian and survivor of polio

She is one of Nova Scotia’s best loved poets who published her first book Borrowed Beauty in 1987 which received the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award. She was born in Halifax in 1949 and was one of 12 children raised by her parents. At the age of four, she contracted polio which left her paralyzed from her hip down of her right leg and both her feet deformed. She walked with a cane. In her poem “I am in my dreams” she writes about her physical challenges. She got her education degree from Dalhousie University in 1975 and while there she won the Dennis Memorial Poetry Prize. In 1986 she became the first African-Canadian woman to serve on the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University until 1994. Other collections of her poetry include: Woman Talking Woman, The Door of My Heart, and Save the World for Me. She was an English teacher at Cole Harbor High and Auburn High schools for 31 years.  She was one of the Peter Gzowski’s favorite poets on his popular CBC show Morningside. She wrote not only about her own life and concerns but about social issues such as racism and famine in Africa.

Harmandeep Saini. New therapy for quadriplegia.

In a motorcycle accident, he was left quadriplegic three years ago. Today, the 25 year old man has benefitted from the new therapy which has given him back some control of his hands—functional electrical stimulation )FES) involving small amounts of electricity to push muscles into action and retrain the Central nervous system. He received this therapy after six months after the accident by Dr. Milos Popovic at Toronto Rehab Center. During the 1 hour sessions, an occupational therapist electrically stimulates the muscles in his hands with a week current. He had this therapy five times a week for two months. This new therapy has also show promise in helping patients who cannot move their hands after a stroke.

Professor Sylvain Martel—Nanotechnology in the fight against Colorectal cancer

He has directed drug-carrying bacteria by means of magnet-resonance through tiny blood vessels to target tumors. This is a breakthrough in cancer treatment. The world leader in the field of nanorobotics is working now to make a medical dream a reality: to deliver toxic drug treatment without affecting healthy body tissue negatively. He is the director of Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal’s NanoRobotics laboratory. With twenty research assistants from different disciplines they are working to treat colorectal cancer within four years. He attaches to bacteria the cancer fighting drugs to get localized access to the tumor site and thereby offering novel ways to treat this disease. 

Dr. Marco Bozzali—Magnetic stimulation to help stroke patients to heal

The Italian neurologist at the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome is convinced that magnetism could help stroke patients by reducing the excitability of neurons in an overactive part of the brain. It is well-known that in a healthy brain, the two hemispheres balance each other. After a stroke, the unaffected side overcompensates. This lopsided situation can result in hemispherical neglect as the affected hemisphere may become increasingly inactive. Dr. Bozzali recruited 20 stroke patients with such conditions. Half of these patients received the electrical current on a period basis and the control group did not. Those who received the stimulation performed 16 % better than the other group. The results of these tests in the journal Neurology.