‘I refuse to let stage four kidney disease stop me praising God’

When the doctor first informed Candice McKenzie that she had stage four kidney disease, the first thing she asked was: “Am I going to die?”

When they told her she would not, she shot back: “Good. ’Cause I’ve got s*** to do.”

Blunt as it was, it was a fitting representation of her circumstances.

Warning signs 

McKenzie describes herself as a natural go-getter who likes to be busy, the type of person who is “always doing something. I’m always working on some sort of project.” That drive and determination has resulted in multiple awards, global DJ tours and even a stint serving on the judging panel for the Eurovision Song Contest. 

At the time of her diagnosis in April 2019, McKenzie was producing events for a political think tank as well as presenting the weekly Premier Gospel radio show, Sanctified Selection. She began to feel constantly exhausted, but assumed it was her intense workload. She started going to bed earlier and made changes to improve her diet, but the fatigue refused to shift.

Eventually, at her mum’s urging, she went for a blood test. It wasn’t fatigue. Her kidneys were functioning at just 32 per cent. The doctors diagnosed IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a progressive, autoimmune disease that can lead to the kidneys being unable to effectively filter waste from the blood. When doctors told her that they would eventually fail, McKenzie met the prognosis with a subtle defiance. “All I was thinking was: 32 per cent is not zero. I’m going to hold onto that.” But slowly, the numbers started to drop. First, to 28 per cent. Then 24. When her kidney function fell to six per cent, she was told she needed dialysis.

Even then, McKenzie resisted. “It’s probably fair to say I was in denial. To me, it felt like my body had given up – and I wasn’t giving up. If I had to go on dialysis, it meant my kidneys didn’t work anymore. I didn’t want to accept that.”

The kidney issue

Eventually, McKenzie realised she needed some support. “God sends help when you need it,” she tells me. “And he sent this counsellor. She didn’t tell me how I should define my illness. She helped me figure out how I wanted to define it. At the time, it was a nuisance. I thought: I’ve got stuff to do and this is getting in my way.”

Her mindset shifted through counselling – and a conversation with former Manchester United footballer Andy Cole, who had been through a kidney transplant himself. He helped her see that dialysis might actually help her feel better.

At this point, McKenzie’s fatigue had progressed into blackouts: “I’d do a day’s work, make my dinner about 6:30pm, maybe watch a bit of TV – and then I’d wake up and it was 11pm. I didn’t know what had happened to the evening.”

I don’t want anybody to be in my position. But if you are, please know that you can still live a good life

She began peritoneal dialysis – inserting a tube into her abdomen and manually exchanging fluid throughout the day to cleanse her body. Still, she didn’t slow down. “I never progressed to doing it overnight because I was still DJing. I couldn’t be connected to a machine for eight hours. I needed to be at the party, spinning tunes,” she laughs.

Then, in March 2023, McKenzie caught a cold while travelling. With excess fluid already in her body, her lungs couldn’t cope. She developed pneumonia and needed life-saving surgery to drain the fluid from her lungs.

Sharing the blessing

Despite all she’s been through in the past five and a half years, McKenzie has continued to produce events and present a radio show, as well as DJing gospel house sets at venues - even though she was frequently told “we don’t want God in the clubs”. 

This year marks McKenzie’s tenth anniversary at Premier Gospel  – an achievement she describes as even more meaningful because of the challenges of the past few years. “Joining Premier changed my life,” she says. “It brings me so much joy to present the Sanctified Selection show.”

“I’ve always played that kind of music to encourage myself. Now I get to share it, and it encourages a whole load of other people. I just think that is the biggest blessing ever.”

Campaigning for change

Since her diagnosis, McKenzie has started yet another project. During a conversation with a hospital transport driver, she found herself unable to answer some of his questions: Why haven’t you had a transplant? Why aren’t there enough donors?

“So, then I started looking into it. At the moment about twelve or 13 per cent of the people on the kidney transplant list are Black, but only one per cent are donors. I’m like, we need to do something.”

The encounter inspired her to launch the African Caribbean Kidney Education Enterprise (ACKEE). While the project initially focused on donor awareness, it has since grown into a mission of prevention.

“There are two messages. Firstly, I don’t want anybody to be in my position. But secondly, if you are, please know that you can still live a good life.”

“My favourite scripture is Matthew 19:26,” she says. “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”   

Candice MacKenzie presents Sanctified Selection on Premier Gospel. She can also be heard on Premier Praise with her show Get Your Praise On. Listen to both at premier.plus