Essex mum lost 19 stone before blood cancer diagnosis

A mum-of-three said undergoing skin removal surgery after she lost more than half of her body weight saved her life by identifying she had been living with cancer.

Sarezah Lake went under the knife in 2020 after losing 19 stone (120kg) and, after complications, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, a form of blood cancer, four months later.

“I felt very angry at first. I felt a bit cheated and betrayed by life,” said the 56-year-old, who is from Layer de la Haye near Colchester.

Now in remission, Mrs Lake has written a book about her weight loss and overcoming cancer, and is encouraging people from minority ethnic backgrounds to join the stem cell register.

Mrs Lake said her blood counts did not recover well after her surgery in October 2020, including dangerously low levels of neutrophils – a type of white blood cell essential for fighting infections.

Investigations found she had been living with blood cancer and she began two years of treatment, including four rounds of chemotherapy.

Each course saw Mrs Lake spend a month in isolation in hospital, and she said a side effect of her treatment was weight gain.

“I started to watch all that hard work get undone,” she said.

Mrs Lake, who has three sons and works in the building trade, had been a regular gym-goer since she started her weight loss journey.

She said she made the most of being in hospital and decided to “push through and fight”, setting herself a daily routine to keep busy.

“I wasn’t allowed to do heavy weight training, but I was able to walk so I did 10,000 to 15,000 steps every single day.

“I just became known as the fitness girl. Even the security would ask ‘how many steps have you done today?’.”

Her book – Fight to Live – took 10 years to write, she said, having first started writing her thoughts about her fitness journey in the notes app on her mobile phone.

She said she could need a stem cell transplant if her illness relapsed in the future, but her Mauritian heritage could make it harder to find a match.

She has been working with the charity Anthony Nolan to raise awareness of its stem cell register among people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The charity says patients from diverse backgrounds are more likely to have rare tissue types which can make it harder to find a matching stem cell donor.

Just 16% of registered donors are from non-white European backgrounds, according to Anthony Nolan.

Mrs Lake said it was “absolutely heart-breaking” some people could not find a donor.

“I’ve done a lot in my life, but there are kids in hospital that are just starting out.

“If you click on to the Anthony Nolan website and just give your details, you could save someone’s life.”

DKMS – another charity – runs a stem cell register too, and blood donors can also join the register while at a blood donation appointment.