A couple battling against a crippling disease have vowed to fight on after groundbreaking treatment was hit by red tape.
Motor neurone disease sufferer Ron Bousfield was ready to jet off to the States after pals raised thousands of pounds to pay for revolutionary treatment.
But US government drugs bosses pulled the plug on the treatment just days before Ron and wife Ann were due to fly out.
The Food and Drug Administration cannot make up its mind whether the stem cell therapy needs to be licensed.
The news has left the Wivenhoe couple in limbo while US authorities try to make a decision.
"The latest is we are still waiting for a date," said Mrs Bousfield, 56, of Ernest Road.
"It hasn't been cancelled as such, but it has been postponed. We don't know when it will happen we're still waiting to hear."
She says they are ready to fly out as soon as Atlanta's Institute of Cellular Medicine gets the necessary paperwork.
"It's like being piggy-in-the-middle waiting for them to decide which way they are going to go," she said.
Ron and Ann insist the set-back is "only temporary".
The treatment is still at an experimental stage but has been used on 43 people in the last six months.
Published Tuesday, April 22, 2003
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