TWO East Lancashire men who spearheaded the development of a revolutionary new drug to tackle a rare growth disease today declared: "This treatment has changed our lives".

Adrian Oldham, of Dandy Row, Darwen and David Wetton, of Pasturelands Drive, Billington, have acromegaly - a disorder which affects just 24 people in every million and can see sufferers grow to giant proportions.

If untreated, acromegaly can ultimately lead to giantism.

The disease, which stems from a tumour in the pituitary gland, is disfiguring and can cause severe illness and death as muscles and bones grow at an excessive rate.

But just six months after taking new drug Pegvisomant, both Adrian and David have shrunk in size.

The drug trials were organised through Dr Peter Trainer, who works in the endocrine unit at Manchester's Christie Hospital, and involved patients from all over the world.

Mr Oldham, 43, said: "The pituitary gland controls hormones and if it isn't working properly everything goes to pot. The tumour itself is not life-threatening, but the effects of having too much growth hormone are, because muscles and bones keep getting bigger and bigger.

"Sufferers can go blind as muscles in the head swell and compress the optic nerve and in the worst cases the muscles in the heart will swell up until it stops beating."

Captain of Mytton Fold Golf Club in Langho and an engineer at Burnley's Hychrome Europe plant, Mr Wetton, 55, was diagnosed with acromegaly more than 11 years ago and has seen his feet and hands grow.

He said: "If it goes untreated it will kill you so it is safe to say this new drug has changed my life. My fingers have already shrunk by two ring sizes. "For me, the treatment is better than the injections I was having before because there don't seem to be any side effects."

Mr Oldham, a maintenance engineer at the Graham and Brown factory in Blackburn, said he was already reaping the benefits of the new drug. Sufferers diagnosed after they have stopped growing, like I was, find that their extremities grow, like their hands, feet, nose and ears and they end up looking just like a troll.

"But I am already finding that features in my face are reappearing and my fingers have shrunk by two-and-a-half ring sizes. It means I can do the little things like pick things up and fasten shirts buttons which I couldn't before. Sometimes it felt like I was bursting out of my skin."

Dr Trainer said: "These findings are a landmark in the treatment of acromegaly. In some patients the improvement is astonishing. It helped the most severely affected and those for whom other treatment has failed.

"Other treatments have side-effects and do not work for all patients but this new drug offers an opportunity to help a great number."

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