A mum with multiple sclerosis (MS) has become the first UK patient to join a new drug trial hoping to find a treatment for the condition.
When Annabelle Stigwood was first told she was suffering from the lifelong condition back in 2011, it was like "a bereavement" for her.
MS can affect the brain and spinal cord, leading to a range of symptoms such as problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.
Before her diagnosis, Annabelle, from Great Dunmow, Essex, would regularly run seven miles up to four times a week, according to Essex Live.
Now aged 39, she struggles with chronic fatigue, and can barely manage a half a mile walk before her symptoms kick in.
It has become very difficult for her to carry out any strenuous tasks in life, and she used to struggle even talking about it.
She said: "Before I was diagnosed with MS, I used to run seven miles, four times a week. Now, 11 years on, I can walk only half a mile before my symptoms start. The MS is slowly chipping away at me. When I told the neurologist I was deteriorating he said there was nothing more I could do.
"Being told that felt like a bereavement and I couldn’t talk about it for weeks. I couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to drop my children off at school. After that, I became really motivated to do everything I possibly can for my overall health."
However, there is now cause for hope in Annabelle's life, as she takes part in the new clinical trial funded by the MS Society, the UK's largest charity for helping those with MS. The trial, carried out by researchers at The University of Cambridge, will test whether the combination of two drugs can help fight symptoms of MS.
The trial will combine metformin, a diabetes drug, and clemastine, an antihistamine, to see if they can repair myelin – the protective coating around nerves which gets damaged in MS. The researchers hope that together these treatments will be safe and effective at repairing myelin in people living with MS – something that hasn’t yet been shown in a trial – and could provide a way to slow or prevent disability progression in the condition.
Annabelle added: "I was so inspired when I saw the clinical trial and signed up straight away. When I heard I was eligible my husband and I celebrated with a glass of champagne!
"I completely understand there’s a 50 per cent chance that I could be on a placebo, but just a few months ago I was told there was nothing I could do – now I’m the first participant on a new trial! It’s given me so much hope."
Annabelle is one of more than 130,000 people living with MS in the UK. While there are more than a dozen licensed disease modifying treatments (DMTs) for people with relapsing MS, and some emerging for active progressive MS, tens of thousands of people remain without effective treatment.
The drugs that do exist only work on one aspect of the condition – the immune system, with no treatments to repair myelin in MS, despite researchers believing this is crucial to stopping disability worsening.
Professor Alasdair Coles, co-Director of the MS Society Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair, who is leading the trial, said: “Today represents progress towards finding drugs to stop progression. For the last thirty years, we have focused on drugs to stop inflammation in the brain. Now we have achieved this, we need to repair the damage this inflammation does.
"The main way to do this is to encourage the brain’s stem cells to repair myelin. Several drugs can do this in laboratory experiments.
"We are now testing whether two of these drugs will help people with MS. The recruitment of our first participant is a huge milestone.
"We’re another step closer to a time where a person with MS will be given a handful of treatments to tackle all the different elements of MS, so that their life will be minimally affected by the condition.”
Dr Clare Walton, Head of Research at the MS Society, said: “More than 130,000 people live with MS in the UK, and while there are over a dozen licensed treatments for people with relapsing forms of MS, there are still lots of people without treatment. Finding treatments to stop MS progression is our number one priority.
"To do that we need ways to protect nerves from damage and repair lost myelin. We’re incredibly grateful to Annabelle for committing her time and energy to the trial. This new research really is a major milestone in our plan to stop MS and we’re excited to get the results.”
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