Jennifer Furno has survived a rare form of cancer.
(Image: London Clinic)
A Newcastle woman thought she was fit and healthy until she suddenly began to see her legs swell up to the stage where she couldn’t walk. She also spotted a “rash all over her body”.
However, Jennifer Furno – then just 36 – was initially told this was just an auto-immune reaction, potentially as a result of having recently had a Covid-19 vaccination. However, after this did not respond to treatment, she sought private treatment and a rare form of cancer was diagnosed.
Jennifer had a form of T-cell lymphoma – which is a cancer that predominantly attacked her skin. However, she is now two years cancer free and has spoken out about her experience.
She said: “I was getting swelling in my legs and I couldn’t walk and. I got this rash all over my body. It was very unusual. But because I had just had my Covid vaccine, I was told it was an immune reaction which would calm down. This went on for about six months.
“I was told I had an autoimmune condition called vasculitis and I was given lots of different treatments within the NHS. I ended up thinking I had this disease for two years. But it wasn’t vasculitis.
Jennifer Furno(Image: London Clinic)
“When you’re young and you’re healthy looking, you never think you might have cancer. What started as a rash on her wrist quickly escalated into something far more serious. I got increasingly unwell. I was battling extreme fatigue, night sweats, swelling, and joint pain. Eventually, I lost the ability to walk.”
Jennifer explained she had repeated visits to hospital, but none of the treatments she was given, for what medics thought was a condition called vasculitis, worked.
She added: “It just got worse and worse and worse to the point where I couldn’t even walk. And I was really terrified. I knew something wasn’t right. I felt like my body was shutting down. So, I decided to use my employer medical insurance cover to seek another opinion.”
Jennifer was referred to the London Clinic – where clinicians took a biopsy and immediately identified signs of a rare cancer.
She added: “I think you know yourself when there’s something wrong with your own body. It’s like you have this gut feeling. , I’ve never had a cancer, so I didn’t know what that was like, but I felt like I was dying. I had this feeling of I’m getting really, really, really bad and I need to do something.
“So that’s when I found Professor Gribben. I’d researched that he was sort of the top, the top person in the world in the area of haematology. I went to see him in October 2023.”
Prof Gribben, also working at the London Clinic, began treatment and put Jennifer on the watiing list for a stem-cell transplant. She spent three months in hospital – it became a “second home” she said.
It was later also found that she had a subtype of cancer called a peripheral T cell lymphoma (PTCL) – this is a kind of non- Hodkin lymphoma. Chemotherapy in March 2024 helped alleviate Jennifer’s symptoms and she went into remission.
She said that her swollen legs and rashes disappeared and “it was like magic, like he picked the right treatment at the right time” – but she still needed a stem-cell transplant.
By June that year, a match was found and the lengthy treatment took place – though it was not without risk. Jennifer said she was told she had a 20% chance of death.
She added: “I was in my mid 30s when it all happened, and because of the late diagnosis, it wasn’t possible to save my fertility. I just had to go in, go into it. And it was really difficult, really, really difficult. But I knew that if there was anyone in the world that was going to save me, it would be Professor Gribben – who literally held my hand through the whole thing.”
Jennifer also paid tribute to the professor, saying she and other patients at the same time had called themselves “the Gribbens” and adding: “There was even a moment where I got sepsis during the transplant when Professor Gribben cancelled his trip to California. It didn’t matter if he was working or off, he was there for me. The dedication that he gave me was just incredible. And, you know, I call him God-gribben now because to me, he’s like this God-like figure that saved my life. Nobody else saved me.”
Jennifer also spoke of how her stem cell donor – who is in Belgium – was a bee farmer and the pair had been sharing anonymous letters, as per Belgian law which prevents donors identifying themselves. She said: “He wrote me this really beautiful letter to tell me that he signed up to the register because his grandfather passed with leukaemia. He told me that he was a bee farmer and that he had been on the register for a decade and never had a match. And then he got called and he felt like it was fate. “
“I’m approaching two years now, cancer free. And it’s just incredible. I’ve just come back to life. I’ve been given my life back. A life I didn’t think I’d have anymore. And it’s just amazing.”
Prof Gribben himself added: “Jennifer had a very unusual type of lymphoma – even when the lymphoma was diagnosed, the subtype was difficult to define. There is a form of T cell lymphoma that can affect the skin called cutaneous T cell lymphoma.
“This can be a very slow growing tumour that can be managed with gentle treatment, but here at The London Clinic we were able to identify that Jennifer had an aggressive type called Peripheral T cell lymphoma that in her case was also invading the skin and causing a vasculitis type reaction. This diagnosis made Jennifer a candidate for a stem cell transplant.
“Jennifer as always been her own strongest advocate. Whereas all treatments must be tried and tested, it is a strength of The London Clinic that we can adapt and personalise plans based on patients’ wishes and special requirements and it was great that we were able to do this so often for Jennifer.”
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