A 22-year-old poker dealer has been given a prognosis of less than a year after a stomach pain he initially dismissed was discovered to be an exceptionally rare and aggressive cancer.
Nickodemus Dacres, who lives in Croydon in south London, first became seriously unwell while working a shift in July 2024.
After going to the bathroom, he noticed blood was coming out instead of urine, prompting a colleague to get him to hospital immediately.
Doctors carried out investigations over the following months before identifying a small tumor on his right kidney.
In February 2025, he was formally diagnosed with stage four medullary renal cell carcinoma (RMC), a rare form of kidney cancer known for being highly aggressive and poorly understood. By that stage, it had already spread to his lymph nodes and lungs.
The Ricky Casey Trust, a charity focused on the illness, says RMC is so uncommon that there is no clear figure for how many people around the world have it. Current medical understanding is based on limited case studies, with fewer than 400 cases documented globally. RMC accounts for less than 1% of all renal cell carcinoma cases. The disease does not respond to standard immunotherapy treatments used for other kidney cancers, making it particularly difficult to treat.
According to his mother, Donna Dacres, 59, doctors told the family that only nine other people in the UK are known to have the same cancer.
Donna, who is originally from Jamaica, said the news left the family reeling.
“No one in our family is ever sick,” she said. “When I asked the doctor why we were going down there he said it was stage four cancer. I was really stunned. I am from Caribbean people and it is very rare that we deal with such a disease.”
In December 2024, Nickodemus underwent surgery to remove his kidney and several lymph nodes so they could be tested, but the tumor continued to grow and his pain intensified.
He then began chemotherapy straight away, with doctors telling him that if the treatment did not succeed, he would likely have less than a year to live.
Since then, the cancer has progressed further and spread to his liver and bones.
Nickodemus has now been in hospital for two months straight, dealing with ongoing pain and vomiting that has stopped him from eating properly for weeks. His weight has fallen dramatically, from 74kg to below 55kg.
Because the disease is so rare, the specialist chemotherapy that may help shrink his tumors is not routinely covered by the NHS.
His relatives say the treatment comes to £8,000 every 28 days, bringing the overall cost to more than £50,000, and the first round began last week.
Donna said it has been heartbreaking to watch her previously ‘bubbly’ son become so unwell.
“As a mum, nothing prepares you for watching your child suffer knowing there is so little you can do to take the pain away,” she said. ‘I cry every single day.’
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to try to cover the cost of the treatment, and more than £10,000 has already been raised.
Donna said asking the public for support has been among the most difficult aspects of the family’s experience.
“We have always tried to face life’s challenges together as a family, but this is something we simply cannot do alone,” she said.