Lulu's medical support and recovery fund

LULU'S ROAD TO RECOVERY

Dear friends,

It is almost 12 months since our friend Lucas Vignaud (Lulu) broke his spine in a boating accident while on holidays. Since then, he has gone through two operations to stabilise his spine, followed by eight months of intensive rehabilitation. He has recovered much of his upper body strength, and in September, he returned back to his apartment in Berlin.

Nevertheless, Lulu has not regained movement in his lower torso and legs. He has been diligently researching experimental treatments in the hope that he can take advantage of emerging medicines and medical techniques to have a chance to walk again. This has led him to consider undertaking stem cell therapy, inspired by meeting someone who was previously also a paraplegic, and, following the therapy, regained his ability to walk.

Stem cell therapy is one of the most promising techniques to mitigate and reverse the effects of spinal cord injuries. It generally involves cells from a patient being harvested and grown into stem cells, and then reinjected back into the body. This is then coupled with intensive weight-based rehabilitation. The theory is that the injection of stem cells rebuilds the spinal cord nerves, while the rehabilitation helps to train the new nerve pathways to convey messages to and from the body parts affected by the injury. Trials have shown that 67% of patients receiving such therapy reported an improvement in their spinal cord injury classification, amongst other benefits such as improved control over bowel and bladder function (study here).

While clinics around the world are increasingly offering this therapy, it is not yet available via statutory health insurance, and must be paid for privately. Lulu's research has also revealed that different clinic adopt different approaches, and also carry different costs. Lulu has identified that the clinic that offers the best value for money, and best prospects of success, is the Kunming Tongren Hospital, Kunming, Yunnan Province, in China, for several reasons:

1. The clinic offers a minimum of double the period of rehabilitation (6 compared to 3 months at a comparable clinic in Germany)

2. The clinic offers 4 times as much assisted rehabilitation per day (8 hours per day compared to 1.5 hours per day in Germany).

3. The clinic recommends a mix of direct injection of stem cells into the spinal cord injury site, which could be more effective than the clinic in Germany, which only undertakes intravenous injection of the harvested stem cells.

The cost of the treatment at the Kunming clinic in China is expected to be approximately EUR 130,000 including a 12 month course of rehabilitation and flights to/from China. Lulu is in touch with the clinic to secure a spot for treatment starting as early as the end of this year. However, he needs your help.

This fundraising campaign has to date raised EUR 56,375, which has supported Lulu to meet costs incurred to date, as well as to support his father Olivier, who has spent the past nine months living in Berlin and helping his son recover. However, in order for Lulu to pay for this potentially life-changing treatment, we need to make an extra effort to reach our revised goal of EUR 150,000. Your help and support is greatly appreciated, and could be his best chance at walking again.

To receive further updates about Lulu's progress, please join the telegram group at: https://t.me/+m_qeYFZ3Dzs4NDcy.