MUM FIRST TO HAVE NEW MS TREATMENT

A MUM from Pembrokeshire has become the first NHS patient in the UK to be treated with a newly approved drug to prevent relapses of multiple sclerosis (MS).

- SHAURYA SHAURYA

The new drug, called ublituximab, is administered to patients via an intravenous (IV) infusion. The new treatment can be given much faster to the patient compared to other treatments.

MS occurs when a person's immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord.

Normally, a person’s immune system creates cells that attack and kill viruses that come into the body, but for people who live with MS, those cells attack their nerves instead.

Fiona Creelie, 35, who lives in Milford Haven, became the first NHS patient in the UK to be treated with ublituximab at the Jill Rowe Neurology Ambulatory Unit at Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

Recounting her experience of living with MS, Fiona said: “I started experiencing pins and needles and sharp shooting pains in my face in September.”

She explained that it was first thought her ailment was something else.

“They initially thought it was trigeminal neuralgia, which is sudden, severe facial pain.

“In November, I started to get the same sensations down my right arm, so I went to A&E and had an MRI scan and lots of other tests and then was referred to Morriston Hospital.”