Father's plea for CJD drugs trial

Rachel Forber has responded well to treatment

The father of a woman being treated in the US for the human form of mad cow disease is urging the government to back trials of the drug in Britain.

Stephen Forber, whose daughter Rachel has shown signs of improvement since being treated with a pioneering drug, said it offered a "bit of hope".

He now hopes the drug trial, will be offered to the six other British sufferers of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).

Speaking to Tonight With Trevor McDonald Mr Forber, from Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, said: "Rachel is the first human guinea pig, but anyone who's behind me that's got a kid with vCJD, I hope I give them a little bit of hope.

We need this government to get the drug going now and see what happens

Stephen Forber

"We need this government to get the drug going now and see what happens.

"We need the trials over here."

Rachel, a former soldier, was told by doctors she could have the human form of mad cow disease.

Miss Forber, 20, from Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, was given just a year to live, confined to a wheelchair and could not recognise her parents as her condition degenerated.

But Nobel Prize winner Professor Stanley Prusiner enrolled her on a new drug trial which transformed her health within 19 days.

Risks

After taking the quinacrine and chlorpromazine treatment, Miss Forber was able to walk unaided, talk, use a knife and fork and complete co-ordination tests which were previously impossible.

Mr Forber said he felt the risk of the drug, which had not been tested on animals, was worth taking.

He said: "I spoke to Rachel's neurosurgeon who told me that the drug hadn't even been tested on animals. I said, 'I know'.

"People may say, why did you put your daughter forward. I've always said from day one that I had nothing to lose but everything to gain.

"When I signed the consent form for the treatment, what could I lose."

He said he was encouraged by Rachel's quick recovery, which he hoped would bode well for her future.

He said: "I put her in the pool seven days ago because she likes swimming.

"I thought, there's no better physio then the swimming pool," he said.

Last resort

"I went down the steps and my idea was to put my hands under her stomach and just hold her but she told me to get off her.

"So I just let my hands go and next thing all the four went - two arms and two legs - all the coordination and head above the water."

Scientists have been searching for a cure for vCJD

Miss Forber's mother Jane Taylor said the family had decided to go ahead with the treatment at the University of California School of Medicine as a last resort.

The drug trials will bring hope to sufferers and their families - 99 people have died from the disease since 1996 and seven more suspected sufferers are still alive.

British officials have been in contact with Professor Prusiner's team and said they found the results promising, a Department of Health (DoH) spokesman said.