Former Big Island mayor announces bone cancer relapse

Former Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi wrote a lengthy Facebook message to friends, family, clients and students that a rare form of bone cancer he was diagnosed with three years ago has recently returned with a vengeance.

Kenoi, once considered a “rising star” of Hawaii’s Democratic Party by political observers, was diagnosed in late 2015 with myelofibrosis. He shared the news with only his closest family members so as not to cause a distraction or to burden anyone with the information, he wrote.

After treatment and a bone marrow transplant last year, the 49-year-old’s health had improved. But he began feeling tired and lethargic last week, flew to California for a checkup Wednesday, and his doctor told him the “cancer had mutated and came roaring back.”

“(The doctor said) if I jumped on the plane back to Hawaii that I would not live more than a month,” Kenoi said in his Thursday message, written from a California hotel room prior to the start of further treatment. “The disease was back and it was aggressive. Which meant I needed to be admitted immediately and an aggressive response of chemotherapy and treatments for the next month.”

It was in April 2015 that Kenoi first spoke to the media about allegations of abusing his county-issued credit card by paying for an $892 hostess bar tab and other questionable expenses, saying he thought it was OK to charge personal purchases on it if he paid it back.

In October 2016 a Hilo Circuit Court jury acquitted Kenoi of theft and other charges related to his alleged abuse of his purchasing card by paying for alcohol, lavish meals and other purchases.

In March 2017, Kenoi wrote, the disease began accelerating. He always felt tired and “had to dig deep to smile.” His body was failing to produce red blood cells, so he began receiving blood transfusions to function.

After finding a perfect donor match in his younger sister, Kenoi traveled in June to the City of Hope Cancer Treatment Center in Duarte, Calif., to begin the process of a bone marrow transplant.

Following chemotherapy, a monthlong hospital stay and three months of rehabilitation, he returned home in October.

Kenoi acknowledged many must have wondered why he was nowhere to be found. “I know most thought Takako must have kicked me out,” he said. “Thankfully, she was with me every step of the way.”

By December he began to feel normal. His hair grew back and he didn’t tire as easily.

Kenoi started coaching soccer, resumed teaching constitutional and criminal law at Hawaii Community College and took a family snowboarding trip to Hokkaido, Japan.

“Every day was a blessing and a miracle,” he said. Kenoi declined media requests to talk about what he had been through. “I felt like I had given all of myself to so many for so long that my wife and my kids deserved all that I had now.”

He also began opening his own law practice but skipped the parties, functions and events.

“Go hang out couple hours, drinking and eating every week, or hang out at home every night with my kids and Takako making memories? Yep wasn’t even close,” he wrote.