Kaiden from Inverness is swinging into action to aid mum Jade Taylor who has an aggressive and rare form of crippling MS
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A brave 10-year-old Inverness lad is preparing to be swung 40m (132ft) off a bridge to help his mother’s battle against an aggressive and rare form of crippling MS.
Kaiden Taylor and sister Jiah (7) have joined the close network of friends who have rallied to raise £56,000 to send self-employed beautician Jade (37) to Mexico in the spring for ground-breaking stem cell treatment.
It is a big task but since the Go Fund Me online appeal started three months ago, more than £14,000 has flooded in.
But time is running out and while April 3 is pencilled in for the procedure, the money is needed in February when medical preparations begin.
Jade said: “Kaiden knows that everyone is rallying round and he is so proud that he is able to help with his sponsored bridge swing near Pitlochry on November 5. Jiah is only seven, but she is keen to help too, even though they are anxious about mum being away for a month if things go well.”
Jade received the devastating diagnosis in February 2021. One week she was a gym fanatic and enthusiastically doing up the family home, the next she was laid low.
“My diagnosis was like a sledgehammer blow,” she said.
It has since been discovered that Jade has progressive-relapsing multiple sclerosis (PRMS), the rarest form of the disease.
She said: “It started slowly with tingling then loss of power to my feet but got worse and worse quickly. I have lost my mobility and struggle to walk 15 to 20 metres without help, and at times have speech issues, and at times my spine struggles to hold me up.
“I look well but my body is so exhausted. I don’t sleep well any more, and I am on painkillers for spasms in my spine and legs.
“Sadly, I have been unsuccessful with the treatments offered so far and have just started Ocrevus to see if it will slow the progression of the disease, but it carries the risk of getting cancer or a disease that attacks the brain.”
She said her big hope is flying to Mexico for haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT ), an intense chemotherapy treatment for MS. It aims to stop the damage MS causes by wiping out and then regrowing the immune system, using the patient’s stem cells.
Jade said: “My immune system will be restarted, making me very vulnerable to infections so the treatment will require me to be in Mexico for a month without physical contact with the kids.
“There could be side effects including losing my hair but that’s a small price to pay for getting any of my mobility and health back.”
Jade said that receiving the Covid injections and some hospital medication seemed to make the MS flare worse, but when she got Covid in March this year, her symptoms were slight.
Currently HSCT is only available in England on the NHS, and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland patients have yet to be accepted. The non-profit Scottish HSCT Network is working to change this situation in Scotland.
• To donate, visit the Go Fund Me page.
