he time came again for Jade Hope Clark to travel thousands of miles from Hawthorne to Bangkok, Thailand.

Hawthorne’s Jade Hope traveled to Thailand recently for her second round of stem cell treatments. (Photo courtesy of Holly Pellett)

The time came again for Jade Hope Clark to travel thousands of miles from Hawthorne to Bangkok, Thailand.

Jade traveled to Bangkok with her aunt and uncle, Holly and Pat Pellett. The family left Reno at 6 a.m. on July 14 and touched down in Bangkok at 11:15 p.m. the next day after layovers in San Francisco and Tokyo.

Jade was treated at The Better Being Hospital, a small facility that provides a variety of services.

The hospital was treating 24 patients while Jade was there, eight in the main facility, and 16 off site.

Jade was one of three patients on the floor. Communication between the patients wasn’t so easy—each spoke a different language.

Jade received four intravenous stem cell treatments, and an injection near each eye. Other therapies included occupational, physical and nutritional counseling.

Treatments went on for six days a week, but the family was free to explore the city on Sundays.

One Sunday the family went to the Safari World (a marine animal park and zoo).It was a long day but Jade got to feed bananas to giraffes. The following Sunday we went to a floating market, floating buffet, walked on the Kwai bridge, and went for an elephant ride. It was another long day but the elephants were a lot of fun.

The bridge over the river Kwai was made famous by a 1957 movie of the same name set during World War II.

The treatment in Bangkok was Jade’s second stem cell treatment aboard.

Her first was in the summer of 2010 when she traveled to Qingdao, China, with her aunts Holly Pellett and Marci Baldry.

In 2010, Jade was five years old, weighed 25 pounds.

She couldn’t eat or drink and had to be kept alive with a feeding tube. Jade couldn’t walk: wasn’t potty trained; was blind; and could only communicate by repeating what was said to her.

A year later the feeding tube was gone; she can walk independently; is potty trained; talks constantly; and has enough vision to make out light.

The family has hopes that Jade will have more strength, energy and visual improvements after the second round of treatment.

Jades life has improved so much from the initial stem cell treatment that we cannot help but hope and pray for more health and quality of life improvements.

Again, thank you is a small phrase that is heartfelt by our family.