‘Sometimes I forget I’ve even had a brain tumour’
Teen hits the airwaves in campaign highlighting awareness month
Though she loves to speak, Mckenna Lumley admits she doesn’t like the sound of her own voice. However, as one of the local voices in a radio ad campaign highlighting May as Brain Tumour Awareness Month, the 13-year-old is going to have to endure people listening to her more than usual. “My mom (Karen) played a recording of the ad and it was good but I said, ‘That’s nice, now I don’t want to hear it again’,” said Mckenna, who had two surgeries in 2010 to remove a brain tumour. “I’m not used to hearing my voice outside my head.”
The extremely articulate Mckenna has become a favourite spokesperson for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. In addition to the ad campaign, Mckenna was a speaker at the local group’s 35th anniversary dinner. She also talks regularly at school and participates in fundraisers like the June 9 Canadian Brain Tumour Foundation Walk in Windsor. She’s also raised thousands of dollars with the glam glitter tattoo project she created with her friends. On Friday, Mckenna will put those glitter tattoo skills to work on Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board director Terry Lyons to celebrate her fundraising efforts.
“The biggest impact having a brain tumour has had on my life is always wanting to make a difference,” Mckenna said.
“I want to raise awareness. My goal is a world without brain tumours.” Mckenna’s optimistic effervescence and the positive outcome of her own journey makes her a gifted salesperson for her cause. Other than the scar on the back of her head, Mckenna said she has no physical remnants of her battle when she was four-and-a-half years old. “Sometimes I forget I’ve even had a brain tumour,” Mckenna said. However, two brain surgeries and a third operation to remove a defective rivet in her skull have left her with a challenging learning disability.
With exception of her name, words longer than three letters are difficult for her to spell. The Grade 7 student at St. John Vianney elementary school uses a voice-activated Chrome book to help her with her lessons. “It can be annoying sometime because it doesn’t always write what I actually say,” Mckenna said. Her sunny disposition isn’t clouded by the memories of the trying times around her illness. Headaches, sore neck muscles and nausea plagued her in December 2009.
“We took her for an MRI and they called us the same day telling us they had an ambulance waiting and we were going to London right away,” recalled her mother Karen Metcalfe. “They said they’d found a big brain tumour. I don’t know what I was thinking because I only packed three days worth of clothes. “She was remarkable though. She uses humour to get her through things.”
Mckenna doesn’t remember much about her operations. All she knew was the doctors knew what was wrong and now they were going to try and take care of the problem.
“The thing I remember was every couple days brain fluid would leak out of my head,” said Mckenna, who missed a couple months of junior kindergarten.
“The other thing was my mom nearly fainted when they were taking the stitches out of my head. The nurse told her to sit down and drink a big glass of juice.” With no sign of the tumour returning, Mckenna only needs an MRI every 18 months.
It’s freed her to think of a future career and she’s begun writing a fictional series of books set in the 17th century aimed at younger readers.
“I want to be a teacher when I grow up,” Mckenna said. It appears she’s already well on her way.
The biggest impact having a brain tumour has had on my life is always wanting to make a difference. I want to raise awareness.