PREMIERES THURSDAY FEBRUARY 20 AT 8:00 PM

Every medical innovation requires immeasurable courage from the first patient. Kayte, a 26-year-old from Alabama, was diagnosed with a rare and highly lethal liver cancer, and her doctors have run out of treatment options. N OF 1, which premieres on February 20 at 8:00 PM on Alabama Public Television follows her on an international journey to save her life. 

Via a Facebook group for the few people in the world sharing her diagnosis, Kayte connected with Howard. A Canadian electronics businessman with no medical training, Howard doubled in his spare time as a patient advocate, often scouring medical journals to understand cancer better to help patients like her. 

He recruited a pioneering immunologist from Israel and a renowned transplant surgeon from England to travel to India, where Kayte underwent a first-of-its-kind procedure to save her life – and possibly dramatically advance traditional cancer treatment as we know it. This experimental treatment, a partial bone marrow transplant followed by a live liver transplant, may have pushed the regulatory boundaries of evidence-based medicine. 

“The story of Kayte Hollingsworth and Howard Simons is a simple medical journey, illuminating the progress of innovation,” said director Bernard Friedman. “Yet because Howard and Kayte are who they are, it is also about what is needed in life to have an independence of mind and maintain the courage of one’s convictions.”