Mr. Chair, I would like to thank my colleague for sharing something so deeply personal with us.
I think he will appreciate one email I received. It states:
I'm a child of an MS victim and I am writing this to you, to ask you if you have enough compassion to legalize a saving treatment.
My dad has had MS for about 13 years and since his diagnosis, nothing has been the same. He has not been able to do all the things he has wanted to do with us and when he has tried to accomplish EVERYTHING, he lies in his bed, in extreme pain. The worst part of it all is that I have to watch, knowing there is nothing I can do. But from the results on CCSVI treatment, I think maybe I can. Maybe if I write this letter on behalf of me and my younger brother and sister, we'll at least know that we could have contributed to a difference.
I want the member to know that there are people who have primary and secondary MS who are getting symptom relief from devastating MS. There are no medications for primary or secondary MS. Even though drugs exist for relapsing remitting, the efficacy is about one-third, or 33%. Should we not be undertaking the research now, which is the responsibility of the federal government, by giving people diagnosis and treatment and then following with the research?