Against all odds
Wolmer’s teen battling renal failure excels in CSEC exams
Published:Wednesday | August 20, 2025 | 12:10 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Seventeen-year-old Carl Blake’s performance in the May-June sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations is a beacon of hope that has come right in time for his mother, Charlotte Nembhard.
The 17-year-old Wolmer’s Boys’ School student, who is battling renal failure, passed all eight of his subjects, earning grade ones in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, English language, principles of business, and principles of accounts. He also secured a grade two in Caribbean history.
“I am happy. Everybody is so happy for him!” an excited Nembhard told The Gleaner. “He gets up every day and he fights to accomplish [something] each day. I have a wonderful joy going through me.”
That joy is particularly meaningful now. Last December, Nembhard, a single mother, made the courageous decision to donate one of her kidneys to her eldest son in hopes of improving his quality of life. But after undergoing several tests, doctors found that her persistently low blood count made her ineligible.
CHALLENGING TIME
Nembhard, understandably, was heartbroken.
“I am the hope that he had. I was hoping that I would be the match, but my blood count is not allowing me to do so,” she said.
Nembhard revealed that low blood count runs in her family, further complicating the search for a donor. Blake’s father, she added, has not shown interest to be in his life.
“I have reached out to him several times, and he hasn’t contact, nothing,” she said.
Though the search for a donor is daunting, as Carl is now on a waiting list, Nembhard is choosing to focus on his remarkable academic success. Encouragingly, his current dialysis treatment appears to be more effective, giving them both a much-needed sense of stability.
“This dialysis that he is on seems to be doing okay,” she said. “Even Carl, himself, he is really excited.”
Although he ensured that he prepared as much as he could, Blake said he was very nervous about his exam results.
“On days that I don’t have dialysis, I would come home. I would freshen up, take a little break, and then I would study after that. I would be up until maybe 12 a.m., 1 a.m., and then I would go to sleep. But then I’d have to wake up 5 a.m. again to go to school,” he shared. “And if I was at dialysis, I would be studying there for three or four hours.”
Carl plans to enter sixth form and then attend The University of the West Indies to pursue medicine so he can help others like himself.
“I live in hospitals, so that’s the only thing I really know much about – being a doctor,” he said.
Supporting him throughout this journey has been Natasha Sampson, the mother of another Wolmer’s student, who has become a second mother to Carl. She is grateful that he got to sit all of his examinations and was not hospitalised.
Describing herself as his “biggest fan”, Sampson said she admires the fact that Carl did not use his illness as an excuse, but rather an impetus to do well.
“That young man is so disciplined and focused. He only needs the opportunity to be in school to receive the lessons and he will do the rest to ensure he is ready for the exams. I’m so proud of him and his achievements that he truly deserves,” she said.