Great-Grandmother Says She Has Some Eyesight Back After Undergoing Stem-Cell Treatment In China.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:22 AM on 2nd November 2010

'When I got back to Heathrow Airport last Wednesday I could see such a lot. It was unbelievable,' said Dorothy.

'The other day I saw a crow on the fence in my garden and had to check with people that I could actually see it but I did see it. It is amazing.

'The doctors said it could take another six months to a year before my sight gets as good as it will be, but it is much better already. It was definitely worth it.'
Dorothy's plight began when she woke up one morning in February last year to discover she had gone blind.

She was diagnosed with giant cell arteritis, an inflammatory disease of blood vessels.
Doctors in the UK said they could not restore her sight, but the Chinese hospital said it offered pioneering stem cell treatment that could restore her vision.
Stem cells are the very early cells that can develop into almost all other types of cell and tissue.
Dorothy went through a course of daily wave therapy and acupuncture, with weekly stem cell injections, for 43 days before arriving back home to her husband Percival in Springfield, Hardwicke.

Dorothy's main aim is to see her two-year-old great grandson Chris this Christmas.

The mother-of-four, grandmother-of-seven and great-grandmother of two, said: 'I really looking forward to being able to see Chris.

'As soon as his parents can get here to visit I am hoping to see him. They live on the army camp so it might be a little while, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.'
Well wishers had organised parachute jumps, bingo evenings and fun days to raise the money to send Dorothy on her trip.

Dorothy added: 'I am so pleased that everyone helped to raise this money. It is so wonderful that everybody did it for me. I really couldn't have done it without them.'

Her daughter Vicky, who kept a blog on the experience, said she and her mother went to Qingdao Hospital where her treatment was overseen by Dr Tony Lao.

'The main treatment was a weekly injection of stem cell fluid taken from umbilical cords at a maternity centre in Beijing and flown to Qingdao,' she said.

'Mum had to have two injections of the fluid into her right eye without anaesthetic, one of which was very painful. There were also six injections of fluid into her hand.

'Every day she had wave therapy, which involves electrical impulses to stimulate the parts of the brain involved. And she had acupuncture every day with one needle in the top of her head, two in her wrists, two in her knees and two in her ankles.

'The hospital has become known throughout the world for this treatment that it has been performing since 2004. We met other patients there who had flown in from Brazil, Canada and America for it.

'Mum has good days and bad days with her sight now. She can see shapes and bright lights and on some days much more than that. One day when we were out there she was able to see the writing on a sign quite clearly.

'The doctor said she should hopefully get steadily better over the next six to 12 months. After a year her sight will probably be as good as it's going to get.'

The cheap reading glasses that can damage your sight

By Sean Poulter
Last updated at 1:08 AM on 31st October 2010

They may save you money in the short term but cheap reading glasses could end up costing your eyesight.

The so-called ‘ready readers’, which sell for as little as £1 in high street shops, may leave wearers with eye strain, headaches or even blurred or double vision.
Millions have bought them after baulking at the high cost of buying glasses from an optician.

However, research suggests they could be putting their eyesight and health at risk.
By the age of 50, most adults have problems reading a book or newspaper without spectacles.
So the arrival of the cheap glasses in supermarkets, high street stores and market stalls less than ten years ago has been seen as a saviour for many

A consumer might have to pay more than £100 for a pair of reading glasses from an optician, which might easily be lost or broken.

Instead, many buy several cheap versions to stash around the house so that they can always find a pair.

A researcher at consumer champion Which? checked 14 pairs from seven high street chains.
He found problems with half of them, with those carrying a higher prescription – +3.5 to +4 – considered to cause the most concern. ‘Off-the-peg glasses could cause eye strain, blurred vision, headaches or double vision,’ the Which? researcher said.

‘For people with higher prescriptions, they’re not suitable for walking or other mobile activities.’
They could even ‘cause a nasty accident’, he warned.

The biggest problem is that the centre point of the two lenses might not be aligned.

This means the sight in one eye might be clear while the other is blurred. This was the case in a pair from Poundland – which also had a prescription strength that differed from the +3.5 on the pack – and a £16 pair from fashion eyewear store Sight Station.

‘This could cause eye problems or a head tilt,’ the researcher said.

A £4 pair from Tiger were ‘unwearable’ because the centre point of the lenses did not match, while a £2 pair from Primark had ‘a very large difference’.
A £15 pair from Marks & Spencer were so ‘poorly made’ that the lenses were likely to drop out.
Which? advises people who have a prescription above +2 to test reading glasses for two minutes to check the centre points of each lens are aligned correctly.

Opticians say eye examinations are essential before buying glasses.

As well as ensuring the correct prescription is used, they can detect serious health issues, such as cataracts and brain tumours.