Mum's stage three kidney cancer revealed thanks to a chance cut on her finger

When 54-year-old Jennifer Vaughan started experiencing back pain and hot sweats, she thought it was just down to menopause.

So the former teacher didn’t worry, and went on with her life as normal until a lucky mishap ended up saving her life.

Jennifer was carving chicken for roast dinner with her family in October 2017 when her hand slipped, and she sliced her right index finger.

It was a bad cut, but it didn’t require immediate medical attention – instead, the mum went to her GP later that day to get it properly bandaged.

A week later, Jennifer noticed discolouration on the top of her palm, under the cut finger that was roughly the size of a 50p coin.

Her GP prescribed two courses of antibiotics and did a blood test, which came back showing an unusually low white blood cell count, so Jennifer was referred her to her local hospital.

However, she claims consultants were at first ‘dismissive’ of her worries so, concerned for her health, Jennifer pushed for an ultrasound and CT scan.

And it’s fortunate that she did because the CT scan found an enlarged mass on her left kidney, and four months later, an ultrasound confirmed Jennifer had stage three kidney cancer.

‘I felt completely numb. I couldn’t believe it’, Jennifer, from Wembley, London, said.

‘It took me a long time to understand what I’d just been told and comprehend what might be next for me.

‘It’s just something I never thought I would have. It doesn’t run in my family.

‘I’ve never smoked, I don’t drink, I lead a healthy lifestyle. So it was a lot to take in.

‘I had been experiencing hot sweats but wrote it off as the menopause and my bad back from moving stuff about as a teacher.

‘It was something I had just put to the back of my mind and I never thought it would be cancer.

‘My daughter Rhea was studying for her A-levels at the time and I just didn’t have the heart to tell her I had cancer.

‘She knew I was going to hospital but I tried so hard to put on a brave face for her.’

At the time, none of her other organs had been affected, but Jennifer needed to have her kidney removed.

However, in just six months, she was told the cancer had spread to her lungs.

‘I just thought “Here we are again”‘, said Jennifer.

‘It’s absolutely horrifying to hear. I thought it had gone.

‘But you either live with cancer or you die from cancer, and I want to live like my grandma and make it to 103.

‘I was determined to tackle it head-on.’

Jennifer started immunotherapy treatment in 2019 in a bid to help her immune system attack the cancer cells.

The process has been hard on her, causing swollen ankles, insomnia, and stomach problems.

Jennifer said: ‘Of course, I still get the awful side effects now but the way I see it is I’m alive and around to feel them.

‘I’m still on this earth even if it means feeling dreadful some days.’

As of 2022, her condition is stable as she continues to battle the disease, and she’s helping fellow cancer survivors as a coach through working with Kidney Cancer UK.

For Kidney Cancer Awareness Week, which spans the first full week of February, Jennifer wanted to share her story in the hopes of encouraging others to get tested if they experience strange symptoms – especially Black people.

‘People in the Black community don’t really speak about how they are feeling and will hide it,’ she said.

‘I help to coach others living with cancer now which is so rewarding and at the moment I see it as my purpose.

‘But when I turn up to classes or go to events, I do notice I am the only Black woman there.

‘I want others to reach out, get the help – it will save your life.

‘If I hadn’t had pushed to get the scans which picked up the mass, I wouldn’t be here, and there’s probably a lot more just shrugging it off.’

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