By Trelle Burdeniuk

Sask. man with MS first person selected as potential candidate for trials

Aug 16, 2012 | 2:16 PM

A man from Saskatoon with multiple sclerosis is the first person picked by the province as a potential candidate for government-funded MS trials.

“I'm certainly terrified for going, but I'm more excited,” said 28-year-old Andrew Dahlen who leaves for Albany, New York on Monday.

He hopes to be selected as a participant in a two-year clinical study of the Liberation Treatment. Half of the participants will recieve the treament which unblocks veins, the other half will not.

If he is selected, Dahlen has dreams of gaining back things he has lost through the progression of his MS.

“I'm hoping that I'll be able to write with my left hand again. It's little steps along the way. Eventually, maybe I will be able to play guitar again,” said Dahlen whose MS prevents him from playing.

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While in New York, he will spend several days at the Albany Medical Centre to undergo a final assessment to see if he is elidible for the study.

Dahlen said regardless of if he can participate in the study, he hopes he can help somehow with finding a cure for MS.

“I hope that the research that they get out of me will really help the future generations,” he said.

Dahlen's girlfriend, Amanda Olson, sent in his application to be part of this study without his knowledge and said she is glad it worked out.

“One night when I got home from work, I decided just to sign him up,” said Olson who has been dating Dahlen for three years.

“Then a month and a half ago, we got the letter in the mail and he was completely surprised.”

Now, she said she plans to be there for him through this final testing stage and if he makes it into the study.

“I just have to support him and be the rock at this point,” she said.

The provincial government has given $2.2 million toward this New York study which will involve 86 Saskatchewan MS patients.

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