A MEDICAL treatment, little known in the UK, could see the health of a mother of two suffering from multiply sclerosis, transformed.

But Emma McAdam needs to raise £45,000 to pay for her trip to Moscow and undergo a stem cell transplant not available to her in the UK.

Emma, 45, of Raikes Road, Skipton, who was diagnosed in 2011 and suffers the secondary progressive type of MS , is already on the way to her goal - having raised over £10,000 with the help of family and friends.

Recently she was at Morrisons supermarket in Skipton with supporters filling shopping bags and will be at Skipton Town Hall at a Health and Wellbeing event, hosted by Craven Clinic, where she is to ran a cafe on Saturday, January 7.

"I've had fantastic support from so many and there are more fund-raisers on the way including a friend who is planning to auction her own designer jewellery, there's a coast-to-coast planned and an ultra marathon," said Emma.

Her Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell transplant will take place on March 20. It is not available in the UK although there are trials in Sheffield and London. Private treatment in Britain is around £90,000

" I'm not the first person in Yorkshire to have this treatment. I'm in touch with many people post treatment who are seeing great results.

"As far as I know I am the first person in Craven to go for this life changing treatment and I can't wait.People have made good recovery after having had to use a walker or needed crutches like me.

"It won't happen over night. I know that even after the treatment there won't be rapid change. Recovery will take time and there will be ups and downs but I hope to halt the progression and regain movement I have lost."

Her other motive for the campaign is to raise awareness that the treatment exists and is not confined to one specific type of the disease which affects about 100,000 people in the UK.

"I found out about it by chance and have discovered more through social media. I've learned about it and seen live footage of the transplant procedure.

"I'm not a naive person who is being hoodwinked into some crazy treatment. That's not the case. I know that once it is over there will be a lot of hard work ahead," said Emma, who was a social worker working with children with mental health problems until December 2011 when she was finally diagnosed. She had been ill with the undiagnosed disease since 1999 having also spent time in hospital in 2005.

Emma is keen to hear from anyone with good ideas for fund-raising and people can link to her site at gofundme site is http://www.gofundme.com/Stems4emms.

Stems4emms is also running the Skipton Town Hall cafe on Saturday, January 28. More info about all fundraisers are on http://stems4emms.uk .