Family’s resilience heartwarming

BY Ariana Shah

Despite Canyon Lake’s Bernadette Mycroft and her little family not able to catch a break, the five of them wrap their arms around each other and refuse to give in to adversity. Adversity that just keeps piling on.

Bernadette, a popular kindergarten teacher at Tuscany Hills Elementary, is a single mom doing her best to effectively raise her four children, Bryan, Scarlette, James and Julliette. Bryan was diagnosed last year with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a rare blood cancer. He’s been in and out of ICU for months and has been extremely close to death on multiple occasions.

The goal for months has been for Bryan, a high school senior, to be strong enough to undergo a life-saving stem-cell transplant surgery. That day finally arrived, against all odds, last week. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the bone marrow transplant unit at Rady’s Children Hospital in San Diego.

Bryan has spent most of the last couple of months in Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego to treat a rare form of blood cancer. After much adversity, a major stem cell transplant of his sister’s marrow occurred last week. A Go Fund Me campaign has been set up to help the family.

The battle to get to the transplant is a story of resilience, faith and a family determined to stick together despite blow after blow being dealt them.

Bryan has been battling. Bryan has been fighting for his life for many months in and out of ICU. The treatment Bryan underwent late last year resulted in him losing over 40 pounds. Then, in early December, Bryan and his entire family tested positive for COVID-19.

“Bryan’s immune system was severely compromised,” Bernadette said. “But he was able to battle through it, despite having no white blood cells. I’m so grateful for Dr. John Bradley, who administered Bryan with a COVID-19 antibody infusion that saved him. Bryan is so incredibly strong.”

Bryan then had two more emergency surgeries.

“The abscess that the chemo caused needed to be drained,” Bernadette said. “He can’t heal from any more invasive surgeries due to his lack of white blood cells. What a nightmare. He just couldn’t catch a break. He’s just so incredibly strong.”

Everybody in the family recovered from COVID-19 and a weakened Bryan was able to come back home and stay with his family for a couple of weeks at Christmas. New Year’s Eve, though, found Bryan back in the hospital for more emergency surgery.

Bryan’s sister, Scarlette, was identified as a match and courageously agreed to give her brother this life-saving bone marrow transplant. On Feb. 1, Scarlette underwent a major operation to donate 8 million stem cells to be transplanted to her brother.

“They have both been very courageous, brave and kind,” Bernadette said. “I could not be more proud of them. Little brother James and sister Juliette, too.”

The stem cells were successfully transplanted into Bryan, and Scarlette was able to return home after a three-day stay in the hospital.

“It’s taken a toll on me to continuously drive back and forth from San Diego to Canyon Lake,” Bernadette said. “But, of course, I’m doing it.”

Bryan is currently on medication that prevents graft-versus-host disease. This procedure and aftercare will require him to be hospitalized for approximately four to six more weeks. Bernadette, meanwhile, has been on unpaid leave from Tuscany Hills Elementary for months.

Friends and the Canyon Lake Junior Women’s Club are doing their best to take the family under their wing.

“To say the Mycroft family is in crisis is an understatement,” friend Tiffani Paul said as she set up a Go Fund Me account to help the family. “Overcome with stress, worry, medical debt, loss of income and extraordinary expenses, the unbelievably proud and strong Ms. Mycroft has reluctantly allowed us to post this Go Fund Me on her family’s behalf.”

Those who wish to help the Mycroft family can donate to their Go Fund Me at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-bernadette-mycroft-help-her-son-fight-cancer.

If there are any other approaches to help the Mycroft family, call or text Sonja of the Canyon Lake Junior Women’s Club at 909-230-2702.