‘I’ve never been this good’ – revolutionary immune reset puts lupus in remission

When I met her in her kitchen in Surrey, glitterball dangling from the ceiling, she told me flare ups in her hands left her struggling to lift a cup of tea and she would need to take drugs 45 minutes before getting out of bed in the morning, otherwise it would be too painful.

The disease became much more aggressive in the past decade, which has been “pretty horrendous” and Katie needed long spells in hospital. Her lupus was damaging her heart, lungs and kidneys, leaving her on the cusp of needing dialysis.

“Lupus at its worst was in bed, unable to move, going downhill rapidly, possibly dying…now I’m living,” she told me.

But speaking to Katie, a year-and-a-half after her experimental treatment, she has the energy and zest for life of a woman reborn.

“It’s amazing. I’m living like a normal person, I’m literally saying yes to anything. I sort of forgot that you could feel this good,” she said.

The difference is an experimental treatment Katie had to reset her immune system at University College London Hospitals.

It works by engineering a civil war within the immune system – to get one part to destroy the part causing disease.