A former primary school teacher was told her bone pains and recurring chest infections were down to arthritis and asthma until she was told she had just two and a half years to live.
Chris Rennie found herself with crippling pains in her bones, to the point where she was using a wheelchair, and recurring chest infections until a blood test in May 2017 revealed she had myeloma, an incurable cancer that targets the bone marrow. She told the ECHO: "I went for my first investigative blood test in December 2015 and found out something wasn't right.
"At that point I didn't know I'd had a collapsed spine or broken bones. I was in a wheelchair because the pain from my bones was that bad but it was the chest infections that I was in hospital for the most.
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"I had pneumonia and sepsis. It was horrible. I was getting so many different infections and I didn't even know about the broken bones, it was really odd."
The now 63-year-old mum-of-two was then diagnosed with myeloma in May 2017 with nine rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in the five years that followed. Now, with the mum-of-two having had all available treatments from the NHS, she has begun a drug trial that has yielded almost unbelievable results.
She said: "I feel better than I’ve felt in years. The side effects are minimal, and I’ve not had any infections since being on the drug. When I was diagnosed, I didn’t think I’d ever see a grandchild and now I spend so much time with them.
"It’s joyous. I enjoy life more than anyone I know. I do something enjoyable every day and I also make sure I walk 10,000 steps. I’m very lucky as I have a wonderful, close, supportive family especially, Steve, my husband of nearly 40 years and several very good friends.
"They help me stay positive. I’m so appreciative of still being alive. It gives me a real buzz. I’m now looking forward to meeting my fourth grandchild due to be born in the spring.”
The Christie offered her the opportunity of participating in a phase one (early phase) commercial clinical trial run by CellCentric, a privately-owned UK-based biotech company. In April 2022 Chris agreed to participate in research at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (The Christie) in Manchester.
Thanks to CellCentric’s new trial drug, inobrodib, Chris is in partial remission with her cancer reduced by more than 50%. While myeloma isn’t a curable cancer, her cancer is currently well controlled. She now visits The Christie every four weeks for blood tests and monitoring.
Dr Emma Searle, a Consultant Haematologist who has been leading the trial at The Christie and who has been in charge of Chris’s care, said: “These early results are exciting and show that inobrodib has the potential to offer patients with advanced multiple myeloma another option when conventional treatment has stopped working.
"Furthermore, inobrodib, in oral capsule form, offers an entirely new way of treating this type of cancer. Taken together, these findings provide clear encouragement for our ongoing clinical research into this drug.”
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