Sarahlee Skidders Remains Committed to Reaching Fundraising Goal

Anyone up for playing pool, do you like the sweet taste of eating cake, how about exotic male strippers or maybe drag queens strutting their stuff to help someone out? All of these are planned events that will be taking place from now until the end of May. And Sarahlee Skidders is behind every event; the Cake Walk on April 26th, Exotic Male Strippers on May 18th, and the Big Mama Drag Queens on May 24th. All events are held in Akwesasne to raise money for Skidders to travel to the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama. The Stem Cell Institute is known for its cutting edge research and treatments for spinal cord injuries. The Stem Cell Institute is a modern medical clinic that uses adult stem cells to treat chronic diseases for which standard therapies are not working or non-existent. The Institute currently accepts patients with Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Diabetes Type 2, Heart Failure, Osteoarthritis & Degenerative Joint Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Spinal Cord Injuries.

“Stem cells can be found in three areas, and depending where the stem cell is harvested, certain stem cells are used for certain treatments. The most abundant is the stem cells that reside in adult bone marrow and fat, as well as other tissues and organs of the body. Once the cells have been harvested, they are sent to the lab where they are purified and assessed for quality before being reintroduced back in the patient. Since the stem cells come from the patient there is no possibility for rejection. Stem Cell Institute advocates the use of autologous (your own) stem cells as they have no ethical or moral issues and pose no possibility for rejection.

The bone marrow stem cell is the most studied of the stem cells, since it was first discovered in the 1960s. Originally used in bone marrow transplant for leukemias and hematopoietic diseases, numerous studies have now expanded experimental use of these cells for conditions such as peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, heart failure, and other degenerative disorders.

Umbilical cord stem cells reside in the umbilical cords of newborn babies. HUCT stem cells, like all post-natal cells, are “adult” stem cells.

The Stem Cell Institute utilizes cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells that are separated from the umbilical cord tissue. Among many other things, mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord tissue are known to help reduce inflammation, modulate the immune system and secrete factors that help the central nervous system to regenerate, which is key to Skidders’ recovery of feeling and sensation below her vertebrae facture,” The Stem Cell Institute, Panama City.

Sarahlee Skidders fractured two of her vertebrae, the T6 and T7 in a car accident on July 22, 2007. The fracture of the two vertebrae classified her as a paraplegic and she has since been in a wheel chair and unable to walk. While at the Institute she will receive twelve stem cell treatments over a period of four weeks as well as 19 physical therapy sessions to complement her stem cell treatments. She has raised just over ten thousand dollars and needs to raise at least twenty five thousand more by the end of May. Stem cell treatments are not covered by insurance.

With the support of her family and friends, she has been working tirelessly to raise money for this treatment. She is confident and upbeat about this procedure and makes reference to two former patients who entered the Stem Cell Institute in a wheel chair and left with significant improvement in sensations in their lower part of their body and with one former patient walking out on his own after going through two sessions in Panama City. Sarahlee said the results are much better if a patient starts treatment soon after their accident, but that didn’t stop a man who had been wheelchair bound for 33 years and was able to stand after receiving a series of stem cell treatments.

This past weekend Sarahlee Skidders along with her family and friends recently hosted a Trivia Night at BrassHorse Grill. Ten teams participated in a series of trivia questions, which ranged from the everyday common knowledge, to questions that had almost everyone stumped. They gave a $500.00 prize for first place, $250.00 prize for second place and a $100.00 prize for third place and also held a basket raffle. A prize was also given to the team with the most creative name: Chicks with Sticks!

Winners were as follows: 1st place: The On-Air Heads - Buck Cook, Kim White, John W. and Misty Tarbell.

2nd place: Usual Suspects - Cactus Cook, Nathan Sunday, Dawn White and Jay Massaro.

3rd place: Non-Smart Smartini’s - Carrie Caldwell, Angela Caldwell, Iris Caldwell and Amber McDonald.