Angela Perry
Yoga for Crohn's
Fundraising for King's College London
Story
Angela Timmerman Perry is raising money for the Crohn's MAP Vaccine & Diagnostic Test.
My Story and Passion for MAP:
For the past 10 years I have been battling Crohn's disease, a chronic illness of the digestive system. It has affected every aspect of my life: the ability to fully pursue my passion for acting, improv and all things comedy; my ability to carry children; my ability to eat and digest food, and my ability to sometimes enjoy the simple things in life. For with Crohn's, along with a myriad of other unpleasant symptoms, comes incredible fatigue. Having enjoyed a relatively healthy two and a half years after eight operations and countless hospital stays (my last operation was in December 2011) James, my husband, and I moved to London this July. Unfortunately 4 weeks after our arrival I was hospitalized with a Crohn's flare for a week, only to go back in two weeks later with a bowel obstruction. A dear friend learned I was in the hospital and, through a family connection, reached out to Professor John Hermon-Taylor, a British Physician and Scientist who for the past 30 years has been working on a cure for Crohn's disease. He gave me a call and we talked for an hour about his work and the MAP connection to Crohn's. Our talk gave me such hope that a cure might be found, and I want to do everything I can to help his research go to human trials. I realize there is a chance my body won't accept the vaccine Professor Hermon-Taylor and his staff are developing, but if it could help someone else or keep another young girl or boy from having surgery or taking high powered immunosuppressants, then my time and energy into fundraising will be well spent. I've raised money for Crohn's and Colitis of America before, and even given my own time and money to various charities throughout the years. But never have I been involved at such a critical time in something about which I am so passionate. The time is now, and this cure is real. It's at our fingertips - the vaccine has been successfully tested in mice and cattle, and the only thing that stands in the way of human clinical trials is financial support. I realize not everyone is in a position to give (I've been there before with mounting medical bills and only James working) but you can help by raising awareness. You can do this by liking the Facebook page
or forwarding the CrohnsMAP website
www.crohnsmapvaccine.comto anyone you know with or affected by this digestive disease. And, NO amount is too small. Every little bit helps bring us closer to a cure!
Also, you can follow me on Instagram @afrancesperry and #poseforcrohns wherever you are!
:)Angela
Why Yoga:
Yoga is something I've practiced since college, even through the ups and downs of surgeries, hospitalizations and subsequent physical limitations. When taking a dance class or going for a run has not been an option, I've always had yoga, and it has given me both strength and peace inside a body that at times felt like a prison. I've even done modified poses with a makeshift strap in the hospital bed! This Yoga for Crohn's Challenge is all about celebrating that, and encouraging others with or without Crohn's to #poseforcrohns as well. It's also about pushing myself to practice everyday (I'm currently at 3 or 4 times a week) and pushing myself to explore the great City of London doing yoga poses along the way.
The Problem of Crohn's Disease:
Crohn’s disease is a particularly aggressive form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, affecting around 250,000 people in the UK, often children. It destroys young lives, impacts on the whole family and can kill. There is presently no cure; treatments are aimed at suppressing the inflammation (often resulting in unpleasant side effects) but this is rarely successful in the long term. Major surgery is often inevitable, in some cases repeatedly.
No cause for Crohn’s is currently recognised but there is now very strong evidence of causation by a bacteria called Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), which is distantly related to TB. There is now a website that will tell you everything you could want to know about MAP
www.crohnsmapvaccine.com in Crohn's Disease:
The Crohn’s Vaccine and the new diagnostic test:
A modern Treatment Vaccine against MAP has been made. Preliminary studies in animals have shown it to be safe and effective. Now a trial in humans is needed to take the vaccine from lab to clinic. If it works in humans as it does in animals then there is every chance it could CURE Crohn’s.
The Vaccine also requires a companion diagnostic test -a simple blood test for MAP. This will allow doctors to tell which patients need vaccination and monitor a patient’s response to the vaccine. This final piece of the puzzle requires £70,000 to complete the lab development and £300,000 to trial it in the clinic.