This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Looking for liberation


Donna Peart was surrounded by family and friends during a benefit this past weekend for her husband Bill. Bill will be traveling to New York in April for MS liberation therapy which he hopes will relieve his symptoms from this neurological disease....

Published on February 27, 2011

NEW GLASGOW – Bill and Donna Peart are counting down the days until April 12.

It’s not because spring will be just around the corner, but because it’s the day Bill hopes to be liberated from his multiple sclerosis symptoms.

“Bill has had MS for over 15 years,” said his wife Donna during a benefit for the couple Saturday at the Northend Recreation Centre. “I heard about the liberation treatment on the news so I called up Yvonne Andersen and asked her how she had done it.”

Anderson, who is from the Pugwash area, recently traveled to Albany, New York for the therapy that breaks through out blockages on the side of person’s neck. MS patients who had it done say their symptoms are relieved almost immediately after having the procedure done.

“She gave me all the information that she had and I called Albany for Bill,” said Donna.

At the time she called, New York doctors were backlogged and booking appointments for July, she said, adding they had told her they had a lot of Canadians waiting to be liberated from their MS.

“I told him I didn’t know if Bill would be around in July so they gave a March date,” she said.

However, Bill’s MS symptoms have progressed significantly this month and he has been in the hospital for the past two weeks because of numbness on one side of his body. Physicians in New York agreed to move his appointment to April 12 so the Pearts can find out which is the best and most comfortable way to get Bill to the United States.

Other obstacles are the costs involved with the therapy, Donna said. She recently wired $9,000 to the hospital for his short stay and the procedure will cost about another $3,000.

Donna said Bill, who is 56 years old, has been unable to work lately at his job as a teacher at Northumberland Regional High School because of his symptoms and she had to retire in October from her job at Michelin to help take care of him.

“I am hoping we can raise quite a bit,” she said. “Bill is still hoping he will be able to get back to work. When you have no hope you have nothing.”

Hope is what brought family and friends together in large numbers this past weekend in support of the Pearts. Many people attended an afternoon gospel concert and evening dance at the recreation centre.

There was nothing but praise for Bill, who fellow co-worker Maureen Murphy says is a “teddy bear”.

“Everybody that knows him, loves him,” she said. “Bill is a big man, about six foot, two, but he is so gentle and so kind and he is wonderful with the students.”

Murphy said donations can dropped off at Northumberland Regional High School in Bill’s name.