A mum battling advanced cancer has been left "desperate" after a worldwide search for a stem cell donor failed. Brenda Mckenzie was diagnosed with Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma in 2019.
It is a rare cancer that forms within white blood cells used to help regulate the body's immune system. It affects just one in one million people and can be very difficult to diagnose as symptoms are similar to common skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Mum-of-three Brenda, 58, fell into the unlucky category, as she had been receiving treatment for eczema for 25 years.
Brenda told the Mirror: "I was under hospital care for 25 years having numerous treatments for my skin - I've always been treated for eczema and have had lots of biopsies across my life. Then in 2019, I was in hospital again but this time I had lost a lot of weight and the tone of my skin had completely changed.
"I had lesions all over my body and my face - which was when I was eventually diagnosed with the lymphoma. It was a long journey to get there because it was almost hidden, and it had been festering for so long."
Tragically, Brenda's diagnosis came as she was still mourning the sudden loss of her eldest son two years earlier. She also recalled telling her children, aged 14, 27 and 32, about her diagnosis, soon after her two daughters had lost their own father - saying they were all left "totally heartbroken". For Brenda, from Islington, north London, her ultra-rare diagnosis led to further agony in actually finding a hospital and medical team with the skills to treat the cancer.
She said: "I was at the Whittington Hospital during my 25 years of treatment and during diagnosis, but they sent me to the Royal Free, where I spent two weeks, but then they couldn't treat me either as they didn't have the expertise so I was transferred again to the Guy's Cancer Centre, where I'm an outpatient now."
But despite Brenda's ongoing treatment, her only chance at survival is a stem cell transplant from within her black Caribbean community. But this has now turned into an agonising waiting game after a search of the worldwide stem cell register for a match yielded no results - with Brenda saying the pool of donors to choose from is alarmingly low.
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She said: "Within the black community, the need for donors is even worse - there's a very poor intake of them donating. A lot of people feel they don't want to donate over a lack of trust with the system - it's an historical thing for sure - but it's a major problem and it needs to change, because nobody knows when they are going to need a stem cell donor themselves.
"There needs to be a wider conversation about this - because people, just like me, just want a chance to live. I'm desperate now - and this is my only chance of survival. No amount of treatment can save me."
Brenda now prays each day for a chance to live, explaining: "All of this has impacted on me in such heavy away. I feel so alone, I might seem ok, but I'm not. If I didn't have my faith, I don't know where I would be"
Brenda is also in touch with the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust Charity (ACLT) which advocates for more donors from the community to come forward.
Beverley De-Gale, ACLT co-founder, said: "Brenda was diagnosed four years ago in 2019, however, unknowingly, had been living with early stages of the illness since 2017 - that's six years of living with a condition that impacts your every day life, in a way none of us could image. Despite doctors searching the worldwide stem cell register for a match, one has not been found.
"Her chance of beating this illness is now in the hands of a stranger, someone who makes the selfless decision to join the stem cell register to help her and others. I'm urging the Black Caribbean heritage, to step forward and join the stem cell register to help Brenda, a member of the community in desperate need."
To help Brenda and others find their match use the below two stem cell registers in the UK in order to sign up:
Anthony Nolan: If you are aged between 16 and 30 you can join this register by providing cheek swabs.
DKMS: If you are aged between 17 and 55 you can join this register by providing cheek swabs. Select 'ACLT' when asked how you came to register to assist the charity in tracking numbers of registrations brought about via its campaign work.
