California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative

[Rayilyn Brown <RayilynLee@xxxxxxx>]

 am writing for this organization.  Don't know where it will be published but 
 she is using picture of me getting out of pool instead of with my dog Spike 
who is better looking than me.  Think they want stories for each disease or 
condition that might be helped with this research.

"Rayilyn Brown has beenÂno stranger to strange medical anomalies and 
incurable diseases throughout her life.. When she was a graduate student  at 
UCLA she 
had two surgeries for abdominal arterio-venous fistulasÂÂÂ As a high school 
teacher at ages 43 and 44 she taught while on chemotherapy for ovarian 
cancer. 
When she survived the big C she thought she was home free and looked forward 
to a busy, active retirement. 



At age 60 she was diagnosed with Parkinsonâs Disease. Since her maternal 
grandfather had died of the complications of this disease she knew this was one 
you donât win or lose. You always lose, no matter how hard you try, no 
matter 
what you do. And she tried by treadmilling and swimming every day, 
encouraging others to do so as well.



At age 68 she still exists on her own with intermittent help. A year ago she 
had to be awake for two DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) brain surgeries, (one 
side of her brain had to be redone). Although DBS gives some people with 
Parkinsonâs their lives back, all it helped was her bilateral tremors, at the 
expense of losing her voice, but that was a fair trade.



Parkinsonâs is called the âsnowflakeâ disease since everyone with PD is 
different with respect to progression of the disease, reaction to medications, 
and 
severity of symptoms.ÂThe medications never really helped her, so she 
doesnât 
take them. 



Stem cell research which ultilizes both extra embryos, invisible to the naked 
eye, from in vitro clinics destined to be discardedÂand SCNT (somatic cell 
nuclear transplant) or therapeutic cloning, which uses an unfertilized egg (a 
kind of immaculate conception) and ones own DNA, is essential to learn how 
cells, not babies, behave. Researchers must learn the etiology of diseases in 
order to develop therapies or cures. 



Since Ms. Brown is now 68, she will probably not benefit from this research, 
but like most people to whom something really awful has happened, they want 
their suffering to have some meaning and she doesnât want anyone else to have 
to 
experience this progressive ârigor mortis without the benefit of deathâ 
that 
is Parkinsonâs Disease.



Ms. Brown is grateful that her disability and wheelchair-bound days have come 
to her as an adult, rather than as a child, but is very frustrated because 
Ânow all she is able to do is to urge others to support all kinds of research 
so 
that some day everyone, especially children, can walk, move, speak, 
write,swallow, and breathe with the energy to live a useful life.



The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative is a significant step 
for mankind that could put the human race on the road to health. Time is 
running out and we have lost too much of it already. By supporting this 
ethical 
research, the person you help just might be yourself.







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