A Melbourne student flew to Germany for a radical stem cell treatment, thanks to the kindness - and donations - of strangers, Seven News reported. Aziz Helou was a 26-year-old law student - "a fit young man," who was left debilitated by an aggressive form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Monthly treatments were not helping and Helou was unable to walk. "I was destined for a nursing home or death; it was really that simple," he told Seven News.
It seemed Helou's only hope was the stem cell treatment at Germany's Heidelberg University Hospital. He and his parents reached out for help and the public responded with $140,000, according to The Herald-Sun.
For the procedure, millions of stem cells were harvested from Helou before his entire immune system was wiped out by chemotherapy. The stem cells were reinjected and his immune system "rebooted" - MS-free.
"It's given me back my life," Helou told Seven News."It's given me the ability to move, run freely, think freely and work where I couldn't before. It's given me my freedom back.
"I felt like I had the backing of a country to be honest and that really helped me to pull through."
A year later, Helou is still MS-free, but the treatment does not have a life-time guarantee. "We need many longer studies to really understand that," said Dr. Matthew Miles, of MS Research Australia. "It will take time to decipher."
"As long as I live, I'll be eternally grateful," Helou said.
