Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

With a little help from her friends

Paralyzed teacher, coach eyes India for stem cell shots

By Julie Hutchinson , Special to the Rocky

Published February 26, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

Text size  
Ryan McLean, 27, broke her spine in a 1997 auto accident and wants to travel to India for a stem cell treatment that she hopes can make her walk again. The teacher and girls swimming coach at Cherry Creek High is being helped by several fundraisers.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Ryan McLean, 27, broke her spine in a 1997 auto accident and wants to travel to India for a stem cell treatment that she hopes can make her walk again. The teacher and girls swimming coach at Cherry Creek High is being helped by several fundraisers.

More Local News

More stories »

Map my news

Students at Cherry Creek High are pitching in to raise thousands of dollars to help a paraplegic teacher and coach pay for experimental treatment in India.

And the lessons these kids are learning are about much more than how to raise money.

Ryan McLean, 27, teaches sophomore biology and coaches swimming at Cherry Creek. The 1998 Cherry Creek grad provides daily inspiration as she embraces life head-on from her wheelchair.

When students learned of McLean's plan to seek the costly treatment, which is not covered by health insurance or approved in the United States, they were eager to help.

But this fundraising drive is different from holding a bake sale or a car wash. Because McLean's treatment will involve injecting embryonic stem cells into her spine, it is controversial. Some people object to stem cell treatment on moral grounds.

When it comes to raising money for the trip to India, Cherry Creek school officials will not allow school-sanctioned or school-sponsored activities.

Cherry Creek Principal Kathy Smith, who praised McLean as a gifted teacher with great enthusiasm who relates well to the students, said the territory is too controversial.

No picketers wanted

"I don't want kids being picketed and the whole school torn apart because of an issue that's unresolvable between the various groups," Smith said. "That's why, if there's a way for kids to help her in other ways, they're very creative and they will do it."

Which is exactly what Yasmin Moaven, 18, has taken to heart. The Cherry Creek senior is masterminding a lavish black-tie fundraiser at the El Jebel Temple in April and expects to sell 500 tickets at $100 each. She already has arranged for all the gala expenses to be donated or discounted.

"My total mentality is just getting the money so she can get there and get well, not because I support stem cells or I don't," Moaven said. "I don't feel I'm doing something out of the ordinary - it just feels natural because I know she would do it for me."

Moaven's dedication to McLean is representative of many Cherry Creek students and teachers who have donated money and time to help.

"She doesn't think she's any different," said Moaven, who was the captain of the Cherry Creek girls varsity swim team this season, which McLean coached to a league championship. "She doesn't let us feel bad for her. She teaches us every day there's worse things in life."

Teacher raised $8,000

Cherry Creek English teacher Anne Moore recently hosted a dinner at her home, raising $8,000; McLean has raised $2,000 from her Web site, and donations continue to arrive.

McLean, who broke her spine in a car crash in 1997, worries that media attention might cause the stem cell controversy to reflect poorly on the school or the students.

"In terms of the school, I understand and I support them," said McLean. "Pretty much the whole school knows" she's signed on for the controversial treatment, McLean said, "and they know it's OK to disagree with me."

She is moved by the response from her students and colleagues, particularly the leadership displayed by Moaven in planning a gala for 500-plus supporters - an event principal Smith will attend.

"I've never seen a high school student with so much enthusiasm and direction," McLean said.

McLean has used the stem cell issue as a teaching lesson in her biology classes.

"One day I asked the kids, 'Do you know what a stem cell is?' she said. "In fact, in one class I had a kid say, 'Yeah, it's when you eat babies.' That really kind of struck me in an urgent way. So I decided to lecture on stem cells."

Information

* ryanmcleanfund.com

Comments

  • February 26, 2008

    11:24 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Theoldguy writes:

    Health care in this country has been ruined because of the far of lawyers. America is at the bottom of the ladder among industrialized nations. India is a mecca for health care because of the reduced cost, lengthly training and superior facilities. Not only will McLean benefit from the surgery, but she'll also have an enjoyable stay post-operative. Regarding the stem cell issue...I'm sure that the Indians are beyond using fetus stem cells and have moved to manufactured stem cells. If there are any picketers around the school it will only be the ignorant bible thumpers.

  • February 26, 2008

    9:57 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    kevinjjones writes:

    Though I wish this woman the best, nascent human life is too precious to cannibalize for medical cures.

    If the school's teachers are as dismissive of the ethical objections to this research as some people, students' education will suffer. Is that final quote meant to indicate that ethical objections are to be attacked by educators?

    "If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough," he said. "I thought long and hard about whether I would do it.""

    -Dr. James A. Thomson, pioneer in ESCR research