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“Before (treatment) if we were going to visit you at your house, she would have to take her shower the night before. Now she can take a shower in the morning and go for the day. That is a considerable difference.”

“In our world, that is an amazing thing. Quite frankly, if Shirley never got any worse than what she is today, we would be quite satisfied.”

The 59-year-old had the procedure at a clinic in Albany, N.Y., last summer.

“I never had the ability to stand here and hug my grandchildren and spend my life with them as much as I do now,” Mr. Donovan said Thursday

Mr. McLaughlin had the procedure two weeks ago in Rhode Island.

“I can now see colour, my energy level is improved dramatically, my cognitive skills have improved, and the results are real,” Mr. McLaughlin said.

“It's not a cure but it sure makes a dramatic improvement in the quality of life of someone who is waking up every morning with the nightmare of MS.”

“I’ve got my balance back, the dizziness is gone” Piercey said, at a rally outside Queen’s Park Thursday. “My fatigue is gone, I no longer have to take afternoon naps. I have better bladder control, my headaches are gone.”

"People ask me, how do I know it works? I tell them, I sleep with proof," he told about 40 people gathered outside Province House.

"She has seen an increase in her energy, she has seen an increase in the quality of her life and she’s certainly much happier now that she’s had the treatment."

Bruce wore a sign that said I Am MS Symptom-Free. Ask Me How. She had her treatment in Albany, N.Y., in November.

"When I left, I had a cane and I was regressing quite fast. And I know that if I didn’t have this done like I did in November, right now I’d probably have a walker."

The 35-year-old said her vision improved immediately and the tightening in her chest went away.

"I was almost in a wheel chair," she said. "I was living in my own home but was headed for assisted living."

Baker paid for her therapy on June 2, 2010. Afterwards, she said her symptoms eased to the point where she could look after her 90-year-old mother who had suffered a stroke.

"I became her full-time caregiver," said Baker.

She was also able to travel and even do some rock climbing.

"That was like my inner 12-year-old being set free," she said. "It was just fantastic."

But like half of all MS patients who undergo treatment for CCSVI, the improvements seemed to diminish over time. Now Baker is looking at another round of therapy.

Another MS patient, Jamie Chalmers, is in the same position.

"The first three months, I felt like I was 20 again and six months later it's coming back. The monster is coming back," Chalmers said.

“It’s been an amazing experience. I’m not in pain, I’m warm, I haven’t been having any headaches,” said Cara Boutin, a 26-year-old from Lloydminster, Sask., who has had an aggressive form of MS for five years.

Ms. Boutin had the procedure nearly two weeks ago and notes she still has some slurred speech and imperfect mobility. But on her last night in Costa Rica, she felt enough confidence on her feet to paint her toes and wear sandals. “It’s the first hope I’ve had in years and I’m celebrating,” she said.

Ms. Cooper first underwent the procedure in San Diego last October and noticed her MS symptoms, including crushing fatigue, numbness and loss of balance, disappeared almost instantly. But a few months later, she says most of the symptoms returned, leading her to undergo a second treatment in her home state earlier this year.

A few months later, she still hasn't experienced any real improvement.

“I feel like things are worse now postprocedure.”

“I'm like, no matter how much I wanted to have my balance restored, I couldn't possibly have willed this,” Ms. Cooper said, referring to her improvement after her first surgery. “I can't will my balance to be back.”

Ms. Delorme made the trek and says it changed her life. Last July, she underwent the vein-widening procedure at a clinic in Albany, N.Y., and left four hours later with better balance, more energy and less trouble swallowing.

“They came on like a tsunami,” Ms. Delorme recalled, “and they’ve stuck with me, luckily enough.”

Last February Lesley Clarke couldn’t walk or talk, but you wouldn’t know it looking at her today.

“I’m lying there getting it done, chatting away, and I started to feel my feet — I could feel my feet for the first time in over a year,” Clarke said.

Because she has a primary progressive MS, a rare aggressive strain with rapid onset, her health declined quickly after her diagnosis in 2009.

“It’s the least invasive thing I’ve had to do (for MS), and the results are instant. It’s given me my life back.”

“When I left, I was walking on my own,” she said. “I almost forgot my walker there.”

Sharon Taylor, who attended with her husband James and sons Jordan and Nicholas, said she's doing good after having a follow-up ballooning in her left jugular vein due to a blockage.

"I'm doing great - I don't nap, my fatigue is gone, my cognitive function is good, and I use my cane very infrequently," she said.

[Cooney] underwent the procedure but the benefits were undone as the stents used to hold open her veins became blocked with blood clots - clots that haven't been cleared out due to delays in administering clot-busting drugs commonly prescribed to stroke patients.

"Now it's too late - if it was done early, there'd be no problem," she said, adding that she's been forced to go back on medication and disability.