Huntington Woman Seeking Donor to Beat Cancer Again

Lexy Brand has had victories over illness before, beating adrenal cancer at age 3. But now she’s in urgent need of a life-saving bone marrow transfer after developing the leukemia that followed treatment for breast cancer. The Chronic Prolymphocytic Leukemia she is fighting is complicated by a rare genetic mutation, which also makes it more difficult to find a donor who is a 100% match for her. Brand, who previously w orked at Jonathan’s in Huntington village, is now a wine representative who provides the wine and liquor to many of Huntington’s restaurants. Her  husband, Bryan Krahel, is a teacher in the Northport school district and he serves in the National Guard. They were scheduled to be married in April 2020 but he was activated to help with Covid 19 test sites weeks before the big day.  Instead, they got married the day he got the call on a tennis court 6 feet apart from one another and he left for duty the next day. He did not return for four months. They got their big wedding and ceremony in May 2022 and decided to start a family. But she was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer, a form of the disease that can be very difficult to detect, and she underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. Not long after, she received the leukemia diagnosis and the news of the rare TP53 mutation. Soon after that Lexy received a new diagnosis, TPLL, Chronic Prolymphocytic Leukemia. Due to a rare genetic mutation, TP53, she is having trouble finding a donor who is a 100% match for her. She was the guest speaker at Northport’s 2023 Relay for Life, during which they raised $96,000 for the American Cancer Society. She told a friend, “I need to, if not help myself, help someone else going through cancer who needs a bone marrow transplant. If we get more people signed up, then I’ve at least done something good.” Here’s how you can help: Go to https://www.nmdp.org/get-involved/join-the-registry Sign up and order a test kit (mouth swab). Go to NMDP Unite: a community celebration to find cures and save lives.