The scene is almost Biblical. Shauna McLean, known until recently as "the nice lady in the wheelchair", leaps from her seat, performs a perfect pirouette, then breaks into a high-spirited jog.

Shauna can't contain her joy, for she knows she is experiencing what she and her doting husband, Neil, can only describe as a miracle.

Stricken with multiple sclerosis (MS) and a life-threatening brain tumour, this once lithe ballerina, who has performed with the likes of Rudolf Nureyev, spent the better part of 20 years dependent on walking sticks before ending up in a wheelchair.

The medical profession says there is no cure for MS and as it hit her, Shauna's eyesight shut down and she lost her sense of taste, a great deal of speech and her sense of balance..

A phone call this year from the director of the Adult Stem Cell Foundation was to change Shauna's life. He encouraged her to try some stem-cell enhancing products from New Zealand. "At first I was very cautious," Shauna says. "But I soon found that it was a food enhancer, not a drug. It's just like taking Vitamin C, but it promotes the production of stem cells within your own body — 4000 per tablet!

"Within 20 minutes of taking my first pill I could feel something good was going on. In four days my double vision was gone. It was a miracle. These amazing tablets, with the totally natural product colostrum, stimulate the growth of your own stem cells."

Four months later, Shauna, 51, jogs in her local park and has given her wheelchair away. "I'm one very happy lady," she says. "MS robbed me of everything, but now, I'm getting my life back."

For the full story see this week's Woman's Day, on sale August 24, 2009.

Your say:

Also in the mag this week:

True life

From the food pages

• Steamed spinach & shitake dumplings
• Spinach & ricotta cannelloni
• Budget meal planner: Rogan josh meatballs for $9.80
• Reader recipe: Coffee & hazelnut slice by Rita Jefferies, Erina, NSW.