A former member of the New Zealand ski team, Roland Matthews had secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. This meant he could no longer take part in even simple family pleasures such as taking his daughter to school or walking the dogs, let alone skiing or surfing.
We say ‘had MS’ because, having experienced a progressive decline for 25 years, in 2017 he underwent Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) at the National Pirogov Medical Surgical Centre in Moscow, which effectively means he no longer has MS. What he does have is the damage that MS has done.
In MS the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective layer around nerves, called the myelin sheath. HSCT is a procedure that aims to reset the faulty immune system. It does this by partly or fully wiping out the immune system and then regrowing it using the donor’s own stem cells.
Roland has been training with our NeuroGym since 2018 (most recently with the help of the excellent Penny Wright) and he continues to embrace life with no evidence of disease activity, getting fitter, stronger and more mobile as time passes, effectively reversing the course of the disease.
Now Roland is off to the Wu Medical Center in China for Neural Stem Cell (NSC) treatment. The aim of NSC is to both repair nerve damage and replace dead nerves with new healthy ones, so as to gradually [further] improve movement and balance. And to adjust abnormal immunity, in order to protect nerves and stop the disease’s recurrence or progression.
In summary, Roland Matthews leverages an iron will with the work ethic he cultivated as an elite athlete to do as much as he can to live as normal a life as possible.
PS: An inventor at heart, Roland holds the patent for the “doofer” hamburger holder. The doofer is a cardboard cut-out that folds together to make a hamburger holder and stop burger toppings from sliding out (: