In July 2006, our family was devastated when our wonderful Bret was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Life was great!!  He was 35 years old and about to be a Dad for the first time, how could this be happening? MS is so unpredictable; no-one knew what journey lay ahead of him. As a family we rallied together and declared that we were all going to help him fight. We surrounded him with love, help, determination and above all hope. Hope that he would not have the most aggressive type of MS (the things you hope for), hope that he would be able to rock his baby in his arms and hope that he would continue to be able to walk and take care of himself.

Sadly, and very quickly it became clear that this was a fight that even as a family we were losing. MS affects the central nervous system and interferes with the transmission of nerve pulses throughout the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves therefore it can impair motor, sensory and cognitive functions. All of Bret's functions have deteriorated at a catastrophic rate.

He is now permanently in an electric wheelchair, has great difficulty seeing, drinks from a child’s sippy cup, struggles to hold a pencil, needs all food to be cut for him and now he is beginning to choke on food, his speech is starting to slur, he requires assistance to toilet and shower and no, he never did get to hold and rock his baby in his arms on his own.

Throughout the last three and a half years Bret has tried all available medical treatments here in Australia, including daily and every other day injections, alternative therapies and  physiotherapy  however, none have haltered his MS nor have they given him any relief. If his treatment continues as is, we know that a time will come when he will be unable to move and speak so we are now racing the clock to save him.

We have discovered a treatment which will give us a chance at halting his MS and perhaps even improving some of his functions. He needs to travel overseas for the treatment (the treatment has been done in Australia in a very limited fashion however, because Bret cannot walk unaided for 500m he is ineligible), he also needs significant alterations made to his home to allow him to live there longer  and a car to cater for his electric wheelchair. Therefore we are launching the “Help Bret Beat MS” appeal in the hope of fundraising enough money to achieve all of the above. Please help Bret to beat MS.