A Nantwich rugby player paralysed after a freak injury during a match, says a medical breakthrough on treating spinal injuries has given him new hope.
Kieran Flynn said it was “amazing” to read how medical scientists had managed to help Daren Fidyka walk again despite suffering a completely severed spinal cord.
Mr Fidyka, from Bulgaria, was treated using cell transplantation technology pioneered by scientists at University College London.
Doctors took nasal cells, the only ones in the body which continually renew themselves, and injected them into his broken spine.
Within months, the man who was paralysed from the chest down after a knife attack in 2010, was able to walk again with the aid of a frame.
Now former Crewe & Nantwich RUFC star Kieran, 22, believes this offers new hope to people like himself.
He broke his neck in a freak pre-season tackle in August last year, and was told several weeks later he would probably never walk again.
“This is a huge breakthrough for spinal cord injury research and gives people like myself even more hope and belief that one day they’ll walk again,” said Kieran (pictured).
“Whilst my recovery is so far going well this is just such fantastic news.
“One person has been given the pleasure to walk again, something everyone takes for granted.
“I’m sure more and more people will as the research increases and the treatment improves.
“Needless to say, I’ll be keenly following all further updates both on this story and on this treatment.”
Before the treatment, Mr Fidyka had been paralysed for nearly two years and had shown no sign of recovery despite many months of intensive physiotherapy.
He first noticed the treatment had been successful after three months when his left thigh began putting on muscle.
Six months after surgery, he was able to take his first tentative steps along parallel bars, using leg braces, and two years after treatment, he can now walk outside the rehabilitation centre using a frame.
Doctors who worked on the case said it was a bigger breakthrough than “man walking on the moon’.
Sir Richard Sykes, chair of the UK Stem Cell Foundation, told the BBC: “The first patient is an inspirational and important step, which brings years of laboratory research towards the clinical testbed.
“To fully develop future treatments that benefit the three million paralysed globally will need continued investment for wide scale clinical trial.”
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