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Wonder drug lets Billy weigh anchor
AT THE age of 64 most people are dreaming of a restful retirement, but thanks to a potential wonder drug Billy Edmiston is now dreaming of sailing his yacht Tallulah across the Atlantic Ocean.
The pensioner from Portsmouth has had multiple sclerosis for 20 years but has just passed his yacht master sailing exam – giving him the chance to charter a boat anywhere in the world.
'To cross the Atlantic and all the challenges it represents would be fantastic,' he said. 'Even to be thinking like that is amazing after where I was a few years ago.'
Mr Edmiston, who lives in Claydon Avenue, Milton, Portsmouth, with his wife Heather, son Sam and daughter Daisy, first realised he might have an illness when he suffered balance problems in 1988.
He said: 'I kept trying to run and I would just fall over, so I knew something was wrong.
'I went to see a doctor and they said I had progressive MS.
'It was a bitter blow but I was quite lucky with its slow development.'
Mr Edmiston was able to live normally until 2004, when the pain of the illness grew and his condition got worse.
'I was suddenly having to use crutches and a wheelchair, and it was terrifying.
'A friend suggested the drug Aimspro and I agreed to test it as an informed consent patient.
'It was a series of injections and the difference they made were total.
'I felt a heavy pain lift away and within days my mobility was improved.'
That same year Mr Edmiston was offered the chance to go sailing and within hours he had caught the bug.
He said: 'It was a short trip from Buckler's Hard to Chichester but that was enough to let me know I loved it.
'I took a string of exams and in March I completed my Yacht Master's Certificate of Competence.'
Mr Edmiston now dreams of crossing the Atlantic in a boat, but he has also helped form the charity Proventus.
It raises money for work on neurological, auto-immune and inflammatory diseases.
Mr Edmiston said: 'Without this drug I couldn't walk more than five yards, and now I think of crossing oceans.'
BILLY Edmiston took the drug Aimspro as an 'informed consent patient'.The phrase means that he knew the trials had not been completed.
Aimspro is the trade name for an MS treatment produced from the serum of blood obtained from vaccinated goats.
The serum is obtained from the goats in the USA and then sent to the UK for purifying.
The drug has not yet been licensed, though a third phase of trials are due to begin shortly.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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