Tougher than cancer - 23-y-o survivor beats illness to graduate with double major

Andrew Jones took in a deep breath, and then he exhaled.

He’s 23 years old and a cancer survivor on the brink of graduating from The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, with a double major in management studies and entrepreneurial studies.

“The hardest part was when my sister and my mother cried,” said Jones as he sat in a couch at The Gleaner’s North Street offices to tell his story.

It was August 2016, and Jones’ mother, Elyrett, and his sister, Gillian, had just learned that he had been diagnosed with stage-two lymphoma.

At the time, Jones had recently switched from the Faculty of Science and Technology to the Faculty of Social Sciences and was sure something was wrong with his health – but he never thought it was ‘the big C’.

“I was like, ‘Doc, what cause this?’” Jones recalled asking after the diagnosis, but he said that for most of the discussion, he was simply frozen. “I knew what lymphoma was, but associating that with myself was not something that I would ever do,” he said.

Months before the diagnosis, Jones, an asthmatic, had been visiting the doctor up to four times a week with breathing difficulties and chest tightening he thought were linked to the respiratory condition.

He had also been battling daily back pains and other discomfort he assumed may have been the result of the stresses associated with changing from his familiar science and technology courses to social-science subjects.

“There were times my father had to be massaging my back,” said Jones.

Still, the aspiring entrepreneur never dreamed that his issue could have been so serious.

He said, however, that his mother insisted that they visit the doctor to undergo a detailed examination as she was very concerned about the frequency with which he had to be seeking medical treatment.

At the back of Jones’ mind was that his mother was probably scared since his grandfather and an uncle had died from complications with asthma.

But when Jones visited the doctor, an X-ray showed that there was a mass covering his chest. A biopsy would later confirm his family’s worst fear: stage-two B-cell lymphoma that, if left untreated, would soon progress to stage three.

Jones would have to do 12 chemotherapy treatments and two months of radiation every weekday for two months – all this while still pursuing his bachelor’s degree.

“I prefer small steps than not moving,” he told The Gleaner.

But it took the heart of a giant to be sitting in a lecture room for classes mere hours after chemo treatment. In fact, Jones said chemotherapy was a difficult routine. “It involves sitting down in a room for three to four hours while they pump the chemo inside of you and you feel yourself getting sicker,” he said slowly, his eyes closing as he replayed the images of himself as a patient grimacing in discomfort.

However, Jones knew that this, too, would pass, and, he said, there was constant support from his family, friends, and his brethren at the Meadowvale Seventh-day Adventist Church in St Andrew.

“Quitting wasn’t an option. I wouldn’t be a victim of my circumstances,” he declared.

However, Jones had to reduce his course count from five to three per semester.

With that, and the decision to change faculties, Jones was no longer looking at a three-year programme but, instead, one that would last five years.

He recalled, too, that at one point, he could not sleep alone as he was at risk of suffocating if he remained in a certain position for too long. So dad Richard, his mom, and his sister took turns sleeping by his side just in case.

Now, the St Andrew native looks forward to Saturday, November 2, when he will mount the platform at The UWI at the bellowing of the name ‘Andrew Daniel Bently Jones’ to collect his Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in management studies and entrepreneurial studies.

damion.mitchell@gleanerjm.com