Joost’s fight against the MS that is slowly killing him.

This is my brother Joost Bos. He was diagnosed with MS in 2010 when he was 30 years old. He had a very good life ahead of him. But that ground to a halt when his body started giving up.

The disease has slowly weakened his body to a state where he is now fully house bound and needs assistance with almost everything.

There is a treatment that seems very promising, and that is stemcell treatment aimed at myelin repair. Joost’s very own stemcells will be treated and given back to him to teach the other cells to fight the disease.

This treatment is not yet proven, as proving a treatment clinically takes many years, but Joost cannot wait that long.

Because it is still experimental it is not available to Joost under his insurance. There are private hospitals in London who offer this, but the cost is high. The provisional quote we were given was £70,000 (around € 90.000).

Update:

Good news everybody: Joost has been accepted for treatment in Clínica Ruíz in Puebla, Mexico.

We should get a treatment date soon.

In this treatment, Joost’s own stemcells will be taken and will get treated. He will then get several rounds of chemo therapy, after which he will receive the treated stemcells back. This will reset his immune system and should provide a significant improvement of his condition.

The clinic comes highly recommended to us by an MS patient who went there and saw significant improvement. It is also cheaper than London. The cost of the treatment in Mexico will be USD 54,000. When we account for flights and aftercare we need to raise another USD 10,000 so we can lower the amount required from £75,000 for treatment in London (which has since risen as well) to £50,000 for treatment in Mexico.

With the Dutch and English fundraising sites and offline contributions we are over halfway there, and we are hopeful that we will raise the full amount soon! Please help spread the word again!

Thank you all so much for your help and your donations, we are humbled by your outpouring of love and support.

If you have any ideas for fundraisers please let me know and I will be more than happy to join!

Please all help us in keeping the campaign for Joost going, we are now closer than ever to getting Joost the treatment that he needs!

We will be holding fund raising events and will keep you updated of those, and we would like to ask for your help! Please help Joost in any way you can, be it running a marathon or baking high calorie cakes, or donating directly, any money you raise will go directly to Joost’s treatment.

We know the target is ambitious, but we are sure that with so many hearts that Joost has touched we will get there. Every Pound, Euro or Dollar will help and will be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you so much.