A little over one year on, that remains true for me and for many others.

It is often said that the recovery from a stem cell transplant for MS is a rollercoaster ride.

Then the migraines began to return, along with the painful stiffness, spasms and numbness in my limbs.

Most HSCT patients over the age of 32 will be left infertile by the chemotherapy, according to the researchers in Chicago. This is a major consideration for any younger patient. MS had left me unable to have children, so that wasn't a worry for me.

For several months, sleep proved elusive, as I lay either shivering in a cold sweat or wide awake with hot flushes.

But the following months proved far more challenging. Chemotherapy has a major impact on hormones, especially on top of the menopause.

After the first months, I was able to start stretching exercises at home, and I noticed that the blurriness in my left eye was receding, although my brain and limbs still felt fragile and unreliable.

For the first weeks back at home, I slept a lot as I came down from my steroid high, and my energy levels crashed. The second week brought some improvements to my balance, while the third week saw me able to walk further than before, albeit still with support from my trusty walking stick.

Chemotherapy is an aggressive treatment, with many after-effects. It's not surprising that the NHS discourages patients from seeking such serious medical treatment abroad - not least because it has a duty of care to pick up the pieces if anything goes wrong.

Once back in the UK, I was in quarantine at home for several months while my new immune system rebooted. But for me, and for some others, the recovery period has proved far harder than the transplant itself.

Twelve months on

Today, I quite often feel worse than I did before HSCT.

I still need to rest frequently during the day, and when I use my energy for work, I have none left for anything else at all.

But there are sunnier days when I feel a little better than I did immediately before the treatment, and then my hopes soar.

Of the other HSCT patients with whom I keep in touch via several vital support groups on Facebook, some have seen improvements and are overjoyed.

Once again, they can play a full part in family life, and work without exhaustion. Many train hard at the gym or at home, doing their best to regain limb function and balance that was lost over many years.

Others report little change.

And a few have said that they now feel worse than they ever did before HSCT, and wish they had never had the treatment.

Some have had fresh relapses since their transplant, and wonder whether to have HSCT again, or re-start MS drugs. It isn't yet clear why there is such a wide variation in response.

Much about the long-term impact of HSCT on auto-immune diseases, from MS to systemic sclerosis or Crohn's disease, is still unknown, and may remain unclear until the causes of these diseases are better understood.

Soberingly, over the past year, some patients at international centres have died while having HSCT, making clear that it is not a treatment to be entered into lightly, however effective it can be in halting progression for some.

Many patients have struggled after transplant with everything from migraines, headaches, swollen feet or agonising neuropathic pain in the hands and feet, to viruses or bacterial infections that affect the bladder.

They can also develop other common infections that resurface in the body when the immune system is fragile, such as the Epstein-Barr virus, herpes or shingles.

However, my latest MRI brain scan shows that so far, I have no new lesions on the brain.

It's a sign, I hope, that I shall be among the lucky ones for whom the treatment does halt further MS progression for several years.

I asked Professor Muraro of Imperial College London how long that benefit might last for those who respond to HSCT.

“In the very long term we do not know,” he says. “We know the durability of effects is still good at five years, but the longer term is a question that could be addressed.”

After his last study, he concluded that “with this procedure, we've shown we can ‘freeze’ a patient's disease – and stop it from becoming worse, for up to five years. However, we must take into account that the treatment carries a small risk of death, and this is a disease that is not immediately life-threatening.”

So how close are researchers to finding the causes of MS?

“I don't think anyone knows how close we are. It is clear we are making stepwise progress. The critical - small or giant - leap may happen at any time,” says Professor Muraro.

“Studying HSCT by comparing the immune system before and after treatment provides a great opportunity to find out what may have gone wrong that is corrected by HSCT in the patient where clinical MS is shut down.”

I know that I can't, as yet, repair all the damage done to my brain and central nervous system by decades of MS.

But I am an optimist, and shall remain so while my immune system finishes reconstituting itself fully by the end of this year, some two years after I started treatment.