In January 2016 I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease after countless hospital visits, numerous procedures and falling to a lowly 68kg - it was not the start to the year I was expecting! Without wanting to resign myself to a lifetime of medication with side effects ranging from liver toxicity, bone demineralisation and cancer, I started looking into other possibilities and this is where I found the work being done by the team to whom I am dedicating this page.

In case you are not familiar, Crohn's disease is a devastating inflammatory disorder whereby chronic inflammation in the gut causes lasting ulcerations, leading to irreversible damage and horrible symptoms. Currently, lifelong medical treatments are only aimed able to lessen symptoms to aim to stave off surgery as long as possible and there is no cure.

A team at Kings College London is working tirelessly to change that. There is finally hope that a cure may be around the corner. 

Current medical opinion is that Crohn's disease is caused by a triad of genetic susceptibility, an abnormal immune system and an environmental trigger. It is the environmental trigger which has been of hot debate. The evidence is mounting that it is actually an infectious organism known as Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis, or MAP. This pathogen is found in cattle and passed to humans through a variety of means, the water you drink, the milk you put on your breakfast and so on. 

Since the late 90's a vaccine has been developed against MAP but there has been a lack of funding to get it to patients - more and more people are suffering when there is a significant possibility a cure is sitting in the freezer at London. The vaccine is what is known as a DNA vaccine, meaning it works as both a treatment and preventative measure. It has been successful in animals and is likely to act similarly in humans. 

This is where your donations are key...  All of the money raised through this page will be going to the team to fund their work and ultimately begin trials on this vaccine, hopefully curing the 5 million people around the world with this disease. It could be available in as little as 5 years time.

Not only that, but MAP is implicated in other diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, amongst other so called "auto-immune" diseases. This could very well just be the dawn and this vaccine could have implications far beyond Crohn's disease.