Janet M .

Multiple Myeloma, 11-year survivor

Janet M. has a passion for life and isn’t afraid to blaze a trail of her own. When she was diagnosed with both kidney failure and multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer) in 1996 her local hospital suggested steroids, dialysis and ultimately hospice care. Janet had other ideas.

Illness was something altogether unfamiliar to the energetic former model, who had always enjoyed perfect health. Well into her 50s, she continued to work out seven days a week at a local gym. Then, in 1991, her bones started mysteriously breaking. “I leaned over a chair and broke a rib,” she explains. “Then I broke my wrist in a minor accident, and my back in a skiing tumble.” Bone scans revealed nothing, but she began to feel very weak and vomited constantly.

Finally in 1996, McCourt was referred to specialists who diagnosed her cancer, as well as kidney failure. She was put on dialysis three times a week, and rapidly weakened.

Desperate to help herself, Janet turned to the Internet to find out “everything there was to know” about kidney transplants, myeloma treatment and research. Her search led her to Nina Tolkoff-Rubin, MD, medical director of Renal Transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Dr. Rubin initially said I wasn’t eligible for a kidney transplant because of the bone marrow cancer,” recalls Janet. “But I said to her ‘Look, you’ve got to find a way to do this because I’m taking myself off dialysis”.

Janet’s determination paid off. She became the first person in the world to receive a combination kidney and bone marrow transplant, a technique that was being developed by research scientists and surgeons right at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.

“I had no idea they were developing a procedure that could cure me. I only knew I needed to live.”

Perseverance and innovative treatment have allowed Janet to pursue many passions in the years since her diagnosis. During her illness, Janet turned to painting as a therapeutic exercise. Later, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art from UMass Boston. While studying art abroad in Italy, Janet discovered a talent for writing. Now she’s penning her autobiography, and preparing to teach English-as-a-second-language in Italy, or perhaps to immigrants in the U.S.

Most importantly, Janet lived to see her first grandchild. And her second. And her third, fourth and fifth.