“It was probably around February last year that Ari started seeing the signs. It all first started with loss of feeling in his left leg,” Sophia Varagiannis tells Neos Kosmos, recalling the early stages of her husband Ari Arambatzis’ onset of multiple sclerosis (MS).

The day we found out the news was just heartbreaking, it felt like we couldn’t catch a break.

Married for just two years, the newlyweds were excitedly planning their future, when the 31-year-old’s health started to deteriorate.

A month after experiencing numbness and loss of strength in his left leg, the right-hand side of his face started to go numb, lasting several weeks. After which the vertigo set in, followed by the sensation of pins and needles running through his entire body, all the while suffering severe migraines resulting in extreme fatigue and forcing the beverage technician out of work for six weeks.

While the Adelaide-based couple had been exposed to MS through a close friend years before, Sophia admits their minds didn’t go there.

“The way he was describing the symptoms, I thought it was more stress related rather than MS. You hear it from others and think it’s never going to happen to you, until it does and then you realise how significant it is,” says Sophia.

The 23-year-old recalls the biggest challenge, months before receiving a diagnosis, was hearing the love of her life say he wasn’t feeling well while doctors couldn’t pin-point what was wrong with him.

But among the uncertainty and worry came a ray of hope, with the news that the couple were expecting their first child. “In the month of August when we found out we were pregnant it was bliss, absolute bliss. Even though Ari wasn’t feeling too well, we were ecstatic because last year we had a miscarriage as well; this was our second pregnancy.”

It wasn’t long, however, before the severity of Ari’s condition once again became the focus; as he continued to deteriorate, his wife returned home from work each day to see her usually hard-working, energetic husband couch-ridden and unable to function.

“He could not carry out his day-to-day activities … I had to feed him, give him water, tie his shoelaces, button his jeans, help him put shoes on, seat belt on, unscrew a bottle for him to drink water and so much more. Ari was a toddler in a man’s body,” says Sophia.

Ari and Sophia.

Sophia and Ari on their wedding day.

But it wasn’t until the pair insisted on an MRI that they would venture down a road they never anticipated. “When the MRI results came the specialist couldn’t even speak to us − instead he got on the phone immediately with the leading neurologist at Royal Adelaide Hospital and sent us there,” Sophia recalls. “The day we found out the news was just heartbreaking; it felt like we couldn’t catch a break.”

At the hospital Ari failed all his coordination tests. When asked to touch his nose with his index finger, he was unable to fulfil the request, nor could he walk a straight line without almost falling to the ground.

It was then that the memories of their friend Emmy’s MS diagnosis from eight years prior came flooding back. The couple had attended a fundraiser to help finance her trip to Russia, where she would follow the path of thousands of others seeking a cure for the disease, to undergo a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT).

“Ari and I, as soon as we heard the diagnosis, said ‘let’s do this, let’s go to Russia. Let’s not take our chances here’. So that was the beginning. As soon as Ari was discharged, the following day we went and met up with Emmy. We talked about how she dealt with MS, she gave us some pointers, and gave us information for Russia to apply.”

The controversial procedure, available in Australia to treat some cancers but not MS, involves rebooting a patient’s immune system with their own stem cells following a high dose of chemotherapy that takes place over 30 days.

Within two weeks of completing their application, Ari was accepted for the treatment and given a date: 22 May, 2017 – just one month after their baby’s birth date.

Though Ari now finds himself in a stable condition regarding his relapses, he continues to experience side effects from the medication, including body aches, muscle stiffness and headaches.

And while there are risks involved in undergoing the costly HSCT procedure, which will set the couple back $65,000, not including flights and other daily expenses, Sophia is adamant that the benefits appear to outweigh the risks, and is spurred on by their love for one another and that for their unborn child.

“This is not an easy procedure where you go in and you’re out. It’s going to be one month and it’s going to be very hard for Ari going through chemo, having his stem cells taken out and then put back in, so the baby’s really going to be his strength and encouragement. That’s why we decided to take our baby with us and do it as a family,” says Sophia.

While she says their support network has been “just fabulous”, once on maternity leave Sophia’s contract will not be renewed, and with Ari requiring time off work for treatment, the mother-to-be admits “we’re in a bit of strife because we don’t know what’s going to happen down the track”.

To assist in their plight to fund Ari’s treatment, the couple is reaching out to the wider community for assistance via an online GoFundMe campaign.

“Please help us with your generosity as we are counting on you as much as we are counting on the procedure. Whatever you can provide is absolutely amazing, every little bit will help,” is Sophia’s message to those reading their story. But above anything, she at least hopes to raise awareness for others possibly suffering from the disease.

“The message we want to pass on, especially for young people, is if you’re not feeling well and you know in your gut that something is wrong, no matter what the doctors say, go get it checked out. Push for MRIs or anything you need to prove that something isn’t right. Don’t believe the word of anybody if your gut feeling is telling you otherwise, and don’t postpone it.”

If you would like to donate to Ari’s cause and help make his trip to Russia possible, you can do so by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/aris-ms-fund-for-hsct-in-russia-2uy8rss3. If you would like to contact the family directly, email sophia.a.v@hotmail.com