SAULT STE. MARIE — Cancer is a cruel and often unforgiving disease.
We rarely get a glimpse into the journey and struggle cancer patients face, but a Sault Ste. Marie native has been documenting the ups and downs of her cancer battle for nearly a year.
She also recently published a book to help others facing a similar struggle.
For nearly 300 days, 25-year-old Mackenzie Paul, has bravely shown the world what it takes to battle Acute Myeloid Leukemia or AML
Mackenzie received her diagnosis as she was starting her second year of medical school.
“She was actually at her clinical the starting of her second year, the first week of it, and she just passed out for no apparent reason. A week goes by, her labs were really whacked out. And, another week goes by. They’re not really resolving itself. And so, she actually came up here and did a bone marrow biopsy and about four days after that. So about two and a half weeks in, we see [the Doctor] was able to let us know that she had AML. She went in to the hospital in August of 2023, for her induction chemo. After that first induction, she was actually in remission from cancer. And so, at that point, they were on to stem cell transplant because of her high risk of her cancer mutation. And she got her, stem cell, transplant in January of 2024. At that point, we really thought, you know, we were through the rough patch and it was on to healing and getting her back to her life and everything else. And then in July of 2024, she got a call that let her know that her cancer was back,” said Mackenzie’s father Kevin Kalchik.
Mackenzie chose to document the highs and lows of her journey on social media.
Her daily videos have now been viewed thousands of times.
“She’s so strong. She’s the strongest person I know. She’s been in the ICU. She’s been, you know, she’s fainted. She’s, you know, has so many things done, so many tests, so many biopsies, so many, you know, just needles poked at her, so much chemo that, you know, has worked and other chemo that didn’t work. And she’s continuing to stay tough,” said Mackenzie’s husband Brandon.
Mackenzie also recently wrote and published a book of poems centered around her cancer fight.
“I was all for. I was kind of surprised that she was wanting to do that because, you know, she’s just going through so much each day and, just having the energy to do that She did it all by herself, and she, you know, and on top of making the videos and stuff and, she just she’s the just that type of person. No matter what’s going on in her life, she’s going to, work hard to get what, you know, what she wants,” said Brandon.
And what Mackenzie wants most of all, is a cure.
“You know, life is so, so precious and so, but she’s fighting and, I tell her every day that I wish it was me and not her, but I know that she’s, you know, doing way better than what I would be doing,” said Brandon.
“She loves life. Yeah. She loves her husband. She loves her family and friends. She loves God. And she wants to fight for all of that. She loves her hometown, Sault Ste. Marie. Mackenzie doesn’t do anything halfway so if you know she has cancer and has to be that, she’s going to do it with Grace like she always does,” said Kevin.
You can follow Mackenzie’s journey, here and buy her book, here.