45-y-o mom battling rare cancer not giving up

Trisan Vernon cannot imagine walking down the aisle without her mother, nor can she imagine becoming a mother herself without the woman she says taught her about strength, faith and unconditional love. 

"I can't get married without my mom. I don't know how to be a mom without my mom," she told THE WEEKEND STAR. Those fears have become painfully real since her mother, 45-year-old Allia Vernon, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma last October. It is an aggressive blood cancer associated with the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1). 

Too weak to speak for herself, Vernon left her eldest daughter to recount the devastating months that have transformed the family's life. Though the family now lives in Canada, their roots remain firmly planted in Jamaica. Vernon was born and raised in Kingston, while her daughters spent part of their childhood on the island before emigrating. 

According to Trisan, the first signs of trouble were severe abdominal pains, overwhelming exhaustion and a sudden loss of appetite. 

"She was bedridden for like a week and she was sleeping continuously throughout the day and not having any appetite at all and just a lot of stomach pain," Trisan recalled. 

The diagnosis that followed would upend the life of a woman known for her warmth, resilience and willingness to help others. A self-employed hairstylist, Vernon spent years building a loyal clientele, many of whom became close friends. Her work not only supported her family financially, but also allowed her to form lasting relationships with the people she served. 

For Trisan, one of the most difficult aspects of the diagnosis was how suddenly it seemed to appear.

"My mom had a trainer. She didn't eat red meat. She lived a healthy life,” she said. "It felt like we had kind of gotten to this point in our lives as a family where it felt like a turning point. It felt like a new chapter in all of our lives as a family and then she got this diagnosis." 

Trisan described her mother as “the most caring and nicest person”. 

“She smiles at everybody. Everyone always has something good to say about her," Trisan said of the mother of three. 

The diagnosis forced Vernon to stop working, cutting off the family's primary source of income.

"She had to stop working because of the treatment. She was in too much pain and she was exhausted," said Trisan. Vernon has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy in an effort to control the disease. However, the aggressive cancer continued to progress despite treatment. Despite the seriousness of the diagnosis, the family continued to hold onto hope. Earlier this year, doctors determined that a transplant offered a potential path forward. 

"I think it was around May 18. She needed to have a bone marrow transplant for her to recover, so the cancer cells needed to be completely lowered and then she could have done the bone marrow transplant," Trisan said. For a brief period, the family believed recovery was within reach. 

"We had a donor plan and so we were just waiting on the donor," she said. "There was a small window that we had that we were very hopeful would happen." Then everything changed. 

"In that week’s span of getting approved for the transplant, she got super sick. Her calcium levels, her white blood cells were rising and lowering," Trisan said. "It felt really unfair knowing that after everything that my mom's gone through and we had kind of gotten to this point in our lives as a family where it felt like a turning point.”

Despite the prognosis, Trisan said her mother is not giving up. 

“Even though she goes through so much pain and she is always exhausted from what is going on in her body, she still very much stays strong and keeps her faith." 

Today, Trisan, 25, and her 19-year-old sister have become their mother's primary caregivers, helping her through each day while navigating the emotional and financial strain that has accompanied the illness. The responsibilities have forced Trisan to put her own life on hold - she stopped working in the beginning of May to be with her full-time. 

"Working right now isn't a possibility," she said. 

With no steady income and mounting expenses, the family has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover caregiving and treatment-related costs. 

"Just not being able to take care of the holistic medicine she is getting right now, vitamin C and so on, that's what's kind of the main expense," Trisan said. The family is hoping to raise CAD$50,000 (approximately J$5.6 million).

Persons wishing to assist Allia Vernon may donate to the family’s GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/4655a58f7