90s music star in awe of brave daughter, 10, given months to live 6 years ago
Nineties singer Kenny Thomas has met more than his fair share of fighting legends. The names keep coming – Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Roberto Duran.
And perhaps the most famous of the famous, as he says with some pride: “I’ve met Muhammad Ali.” For soul star Kenny though, there’s a different name, closer to home. He says: “But the greatest fighter I’ve ever known is Christina Thomas.”
She is his 10-year-old child who has been battling a glioma, an aggressive brain tumour, for more than six years. When she was diagnosed all the NHS could offer was palliative care. Yet Christina defied the odds and keeps defying them.
Christina, aged 10, enjoying a drink (COLLECT)
Star with Francisca and their kids (COLLECT)The family’s nightmare began at around Halloween 2016 when they noticed Christina, who had been trampolining at their Norfolk home, had a slight limp. Kenny, now 55, says her right leg was dragging a little so they saw a physio and X-rays were taken. But they were told the problem was neurological.
Kenny, whose biggest hit was Thinking About Your Love, was gigging at the time. Christina’s symptoms were worsening, affecting her right leg, right arm, then her mouth and speech. He drove through the night after a gig in February 2017 to be at hospital with Christina and refused to leave until she had received a scan.
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By evening she being blue-lit to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. The surgeon’s shocking diagnosis devastated Christina’s tearful family. They were told she had a tumour so deep in the brain that it was inoperable and physically nothing could be done for the young girl.
Doctors said there was no hope for Christina, daughter of Francisca, 41, and sister to Angela, 13, Joe, nine, and Jude, six. But Kenny refused to be knocked down. He says: “Collapsing into a heap was not an option. I needed to get up and fight and think.”
He had studied Chinese medicine for a degree and felt other places may tackle the condition differently. “In my life if I’d applied myself in the way I did with my daughter in the last nearly seven years – if my musical career had had that level of tenacity, I’d have been a worldwide superstar.”
Kenny meets AliChristina was put on steroids and moved to palliative care. She was given six months to live and the family were told if they planned to take her to Disney World to do it quickly. Kenny says: “As much as Disney World is nice - that can wait. I need to go somewhere to get her well.”
The family wanted to spend every moment with Christina but it was an intense juggling act. Francisca was still breastfeeding Jude and Kenny was still trying to do the odd gig to keep money coming in. Kenny says Francisca is a tough cookie from Cape Town, South Africa, who had a hard, poor upbringing but there were “moments when the weight on you is so heavy, so heavy”.
They began boosting Christina’s immune system with supplements and diet, and talked to doctors and parents in countries such as Mexico, Cuba, and India. Kenny wanted to take Christina abroad and was ready to fight the medics in court if they refused.
He told them: “We may only buy time but time is precious, who knows what else is on the horizon?” The doctors backed off. Christina had gone past the six-month point. The plan was to get Christina to Cologne, Germany, for dendritic cell therapy.
These cells in our body help the immune system recognise and attack abnormal cells such as cancer. When taken from the body and grown alongside the cancer cells in this therapy, they are super-powered for warfare and put back in the body.
Christina walking in the woods (COLLECT)The treatment was not cheap but a Just Giving appeal supported by fellow stars, such as Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley, raised more than £67,000. Kenny also sold some assets and re-mortgaged their house to release as much as possible as quickly as possible.
After this therapy, they accessed another immunotherapy drug, ONC201, in Frankfurt. But the pandemic meant it had to be couriered from the German city. They used it for two years, and there was very little change to the tumour.
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But in August last year Christina started having seizures, caused by a cyst near her brain, and was admitted to intensive care at Addenbrooke’s. Kenny says: “It was devastating, a scan showed the tumour was still stable but a cyst had developed next to it.”
But despair turned to hope for Kenny and Francisca as new cancer treatments, such as targeted gene therapies, had emerged in the five years since Christina’s diagnosis. But the little girl needed a potentially dangerous biopsy to discover the genetic make-up of her tumour.
She had the procedure at London’s Great Ormond St Children’s Hospital in May this year. The cyst was also drained.The couple are overjoyed by the results show gene therapy may shrink Christina’s tumour. Kenny says: “She’s defied the odds, let’s keep defying them.” Christina is blossoming at school with one-on-one support. Proud Kenny says: “She has a lively, infectious sense of humour. Even when she’s gone into hospital, she’s just gone with the flow and put up with it. She’s brave, all right.”
* Tickets for Kenny Thomas’s Him UK Tour 2024 are on sale from Ticketmaster.co.uk, with further dates to be announced. The Best of Kenny Thomas is out on Chrysalis Records.
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