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'I really have a second chance at life': Macon woman cancer-free after stem cell transplant from her mom

21-year-old Nakeia Brooks is in remission from a rare type of cancer, and the donor who helped save her life lives under the same roof.

MACON, Ga. — When Nakeia Brooks was 12-years-old, she says she started feeling different.

"Get out of school and start feeling tired. I would not eat. My room started being a little messier, and I would just be quiet," Brooks said.

Her mother, Marqueta Lucas, says that's when she knew something was wrong.

"She wasn't looking like Nakeia, and my son had already told me that the kids told him that she didn't eat her lunch," Lucas said.

Brooks was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called acute biphenotypic leukemia. Her mom says, at the time, Brooks was one of four people in the world under the age of 18 to be diagnosed with it.

"I was like, 'Mom, can you tell me a little bit more about what I have?' And then she explained to me what it was," Brooks said.

She went into remission a year later, and then it came back when she was 18. In the fall of 2019, she needed a stem cell transplant.

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"She was in that emergency state for needing that transplant right then. We couldn't wait and go in a database and look for no one to be a match for her," Lucas said.

So, Lucas became her donor, donating stem cells to Brooks in September. By December, Brooks found out she was cancer-free.

"Wow. I really have a second chance at life, and I was just happy," Brooks said.

Brooks posted the good news on Facebook, and has received tons of support since.

"I told my mom the next day, I said, 'Mama, this post, it's going crazy'," Brooks said.

Now she feels like she can start her life. Her goal is to continue studying nursing at Valdosta State University.

"I've always been the type to just go, I don't let nothing stop me," Brooks said.

With her birthday next week, Brooks says she's hoping to start traveling more this year. She is also looking forward to taking her first plane ride.

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