Greetings and blessings from the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. I'm no stranger to hard work but this week has been another league of intensity. I apologise I've not managed to answer emails or even phone calls.

An ancient city on the cutting edge

I have been visiting the new Stem Cell Clinic for the first time, which has been established by Dr. Majid. To my total surprise it is essentially a whole hospital, just for Stem Cell treatment. The facility is quite outstanding with incredible equipment, facilities and staff. It was like nothing I had ever seen in Iraq and it was far better than anything I had seen in the UK. It was amazing to see how all of this had developed in response to my pilot treatment.

Two patients, including myself, were treated using Peripheral Blood Stem Cells and two from bone marrow cells taken under General Anesthetic. Whilst it is too early to know the results from these patients, generally they have been outstanding.

Over 1,000 people have now been treated, not just with MS but Motor Neurone Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsey, Liver Failure and several other diseases. The results on most people have been outstanding. I also had my 19th treatment. But so far have had no chance at all to rest and recover.

Practical challenges

Whilst the centre is amazing, the process will not be easy. One of the main problems has been that most of the hotels in Erbil, beside two, only have stairs. This is not ideal when many of the patients are in wheelchairs. The main hotel with easiest access suddenly had no rooms. We spent hours trying to find other hotels and the ones we finally found were not really sufficient.

Added to this, one of the patients got very ill with an unrelated infection. She lost consciousness for several hours and the medical team and I were with her for many hours until she came round.

I am hoping to return to Baghdad today, still rather traumatised by the intensity of the past few days. At the same time what is happening is simply amazing. I am so looking forward to seeing some of my American friends in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. If you are in the area then please do come and say hello.