When Michael Pryce joined the British military, he knew that at any time he could be called upon to face a terrible enemy. What he did not know was that the greatest enemy he would face was in his own body.

What Pryce also did not know was that that enemy woud drive him into the middle of a raging controversy, pitting science against religion, over the use of a process that would give him a new lease on life.

Scientists believe that by using stem cell transplant, mankind can eventually cure all its diseases. But for the most part, these stem cells would have to come from human embryos created for the purpose and disposed of after use.

For religious persons, this would be preposterous, as they regard embryos as human beings who should not be used in the way laboratory animals are.

Broadcast journalist Michael Pryce had followed the stem cell debate, never thinking that he would have anything more than a journalist’s interest in it. But two years ago while he was working for the CVM Group, he was diagnosed with cancer. That changed everything.

Pryce was rushed to England where he had previously lived to do extensive tests at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. A biopsy revealed that the journalist was suffering from multiple myeloma – a rare blood cancer – which had started to spread.

The disease had progressed so far and so quickly that his plasma type of white blood cells were destroyed in the bone marrow and the hard outer shell of the skeleton.

But the news was even more grave. His type of cancer differed from bone cancer and its treatment as it actually began in the immune cells.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, considered UK’s best cancer treatment centre, admitted Pryce immediately and outlined the dire consequences.

“They said I would never be able to give blood again as I would eventually be anaemic as a result,” Pryce now back in Jamaica tells the Observer. “I would never father children again and the best rate of survival was to have a stem cell transplant,” he reveals.

Pryce had to prepare himself psychologically to remain positive and cooperate with the strict medical regime that the team of medical experts ordered. But he was determined to be brave and to do whatever it took to save his life, including a stem cell transplant.

However, doctors said he could do the transplant using his own stem cell and avoid the use of embryos. Then began a series of treatment which involved the “painful removal of some of my bone marrow and two doses of chemotherapy”.

The first dose of chemotherapy which was given intravenously, did not work. A steroid course worked wonders. Pryce was then subjected to a three month course of 48 tablets daily which resulted in a loss of appetite, the onset of infertility and mood changes, as multiple myeloma weakened his bones. He was also given a bone strengthening infusion called Pamidronate.

“The side effects were drastic. There was hair and weight loss, my finger and toe nails blackened as a result, my mouth was sore, there was nausea and regular infections,” recalls Pryce. “I had to drink three litres of water per day in order to flush the myeloma proteins and chemotherapy through my kidney so as not to get kidney damage.”

Stem cell for part of his treatment was taken from his bone marrow and peripheral blood cells, frozen over a month and then given back to me. “This is when they re-admit me in hospital in a fit state and then break you down to the point of almost wrecking you to ensure the stem transplant is a success…,” he remembers. “What it (stem cell transplant) did was to destroy the remaining cancer cells after I underwent high dosages of radiation and chemotherapy.”

But in the end, Pryce recovered and returned to the Island in March to a spectacular welcome orchestrated by veteran broadcaster, Fae Ellington.

He says that throughout his treatment, he was undaunted by the continuing debate in medical jurisdictions, such as in the United States where the White House has vetoed further research and innovation treatment.