Oak Lawn Teen Feels the Power of Prayer As She Battles Rare Cancer

Caption: Brenna McNamara, 17, who is battling a rare form of cancer. She is getting ready to enter her senior year at OLCHS.

An Oak Lawn teen says she can feel the prayers of family and friends as she lies in a hospital bed fighting a rare form of cancer that is mostly found in Asia.

Brenna McNamara,17, is a third-generation Oak Lawn resident and student at Oak Lawn Community High School. In March, Brenna was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which effectively put an end to her junior year at OLCHS.

Brenna’s aunt, Kim McNamara, said the cancer was discovered in March after tests atAdvocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn revealed masses. Brenna had gone to the hospital for a presurgical evaluation of her adenoids after years of suffering from chronic ear and sinus infections.

Further exploration showed that Brenna had nasopharyngeal carcinoma that affects mostly middle-aged men in southeast China.

“The doctors don’t know if the cancer was present when she was a young girl,” Kim McNamara said of her niece, the daughter of her brother, Bob. “The masses they found were cancer and then on top that it was this rare form of Asian cancer.”

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare type of head and neck cancer that starts in the upper part of the throat, beneath the nose, in the area called the nasopharynx.

The rare cancer affects 7 of one million people in North America. It is much more common, however, among middle-aged men in southeast China as well as other areas of Asia and Africa. Scientists don’t know exactly what causes it, except that is has been strongly linked to the Epstein-Barr virus.

Brenna has completed the first of four cycles of 106 continuous hours of chemotherapy. Between each cycle, Brenna will rest at home for two to three weeks and undergo lab tests.

“After that is over she goes through six weeks of radiation five days a week,” her aunt said. “After that is more chemo.”

Brenna’s mom, also named Kim, has taken an unpaid time off from her job as a science teacher at Thornridge High School in Dolton, to be with her daughter. The family also has two younger children, Kyle, a student at Brother Rice High School, and Isabella, who attends Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School.

Her aunts have started an online GoFundMe fundraising campaign -- Team Brenna -- to help the family with Brenna’s medical costs and to keep up with the household bills.

Brenna’s parents were high school sweethearts who met at OLCHS and grew up near 88th Street and 51st Avenue. Her aunts and uncles also attended the community high school.

“I was best friends with my future sister-in-law in high school,” Brenna’s aunt laughed. “I introduced her to my brother and they started dating.”

Before she became sick, Brenna was a member of the stage crew for the OLCHS drama and musical productions. Her listed interests on her Twitter account include “people, laughter, theater and photography.”

“She was thrilled when the drama club won the state championship,” Kim McNamara said. “She’s a very good student and is supposed to graduate early. Her teachers love her.”

Brenna has been accepted by the Make-A-Wish Illinois Foundation. Her wish: to meet actor, Norman Reedus, who portrays Daryl Dixon in the AMC cult classic Walking Dead.

Brenna is back home from the hospital for the next few weeks preparing for round two of another 106-hour continuous chemo cycle.

“She’s reading our texts and messages on Facebook,” Kim McNamara said. “She says she can feel everyone’s prayers.”

To keep up with Brenna’s progress or to make an online donation, visit the Team Brenna GoFundMe page. Her family is also working on a fundraiser to be held at 115 Bourbon Street in the near future.