Sandy Lee touches her son’s face and smiles. Today is his fifth birthday and last day of school before summer break.

“He’s getting so big,” she says. “This is why I have to get well.”

Lee, who suffers from the chronic disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS), is raising money to fund a trip to China, where she will immerse herself in a month-long treatment program that she hopes will help treat her MS and reverse the effects of the disease.

At left, Sandy Lee and her son, Brian(left) and husband Chuck, along with their daughter Charlotte (not pictured) are raising money for Sandy to travel to China for a month-long treatment program to help treat her Multiple Sclerosis. Photo by Holly Dutton

In addition to her 5-year-old son, Lee and her husband Chuck, 52, also have a 12-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

Being there to raise their children is their number one priority.

“We’re a really committed couple to the children,” she says. “I’m convinced God gave me these children not to watch them grow up from a bed.”

Taking care of her children and home is made complicated by the disease. She is mainly confined to a motorized scooter because of the effects of MS, a chronic disease that affects the central nervous system and, over time, inhibits the body’s ability to move.

The treatment Lee is seeking in China is unavailable in the U.S., and is unique in the extent and thoroughness of the treatment.

“I am really hoping that when I get back home and get off the airplane, I am walking with a cane,” she said.

Lee, 50, first began showing minor symptoms nearly 15 years ago. But it wasn’t until right after the birth of her daughter when she felt her legs tingling that she knew something was wrong and doctors began to try and diagnose her symptoms.

“I could not get diagnosed,” she said.

As time went by and one doctor after another failed to pinpoint the disease, her symptoms became worse.

It wasn’t until five years ago when a friend noticed the way Lee walked was remarkably similar to her husband (who also suffered from MS) and referred her to a specialist that Lee finally got an explanation for her symptoms.

“I walked in and he diagnosed me in 30 seconds,” she said.

By this time, she had eight out of 10 symptoms, and the disease had progressed beyond the beginning stages. By then, she was walking with a cane.

Three months after her diagnosis in May of 2002, Lee left her job as a successful director of recruiting for AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company.

It wasn’t easy. Before she was diagnosed, Lee relished the independence of her job.

“I absolutely loved it, I travelled all over the U.S.,” she said. “But now I cannot travel alone.”

Now, because of the loss of mobility, Lee sometimes must depend on others for help.

“I hate asking people to do things for me, friends will wait on me hand and foot and I hate it.”

After extensive research, Lee found Beike Biotechnology, a company in China that develops and uses technology for treatment of many diseases using adult stem cells, focusing on umbilical cord and cord blood-derived stem cell therapy.

“I’m hoping this treatment will take me three years back into my illness and I’ll be able to get back into physical therapy and keep myself moving and loosen my muscles,” she said

Lee says she is planning on leaving for China in July, and the trip will cost between $40,000 and $45,000 dollars. Lee and her family have sent out letters and are planning a fundraising barbecue at 11 a.m. on June 21 that will also feature a silent auction and live music at Dewaine’s Beauty Salon at 7010 FM 1488 in Magnolia.

“I know I have this illness, but I know there’s a reason I have it,” she said. “I really want to help other people, and I think going to China and finding out information there I will be able to do that.”

“I’m going to fight this ‘til I can’t fight it anymore.”

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