Serena Bute

Short Biography

Serena Solitaire Wendell is the daughter of Major Jac Wendell and Anthea Peronelle Maxwell-Hyslop.Serena Solitaire Wendell was born on December 1959 and arrived in London, aged 18, straight from a sheltered childhood in Wales that revolved around ponies and boarding school. With her English-rose looks, she soon found herself in the world of modelling and glamorous, druggy parties. 'I was a bit of a rebel and very shy. When I came across drugs they gave me the confidence I’d been looking for. That period didn’t last long: I went into rehab in 1983, when I was 23, and haven’t had a drink or a drug since. At the time, of course, no one knew about hepatitis C.’ (The virus was discovered in 1989).As many as half of adults infected appear spontaneously to clear themselves of the virus without treatment, according to an American study cited by Prof Mieli-Vergani. But Serena neither knew that she had it, nor that she could pass it on. A few years later she married a Jamaican and had her son, Joshua, now 20, and then, in August 1991, Jazzy. 'When Jazzy was two, she was ill with bronchitis, so I took her for tests. It was then that I learnt that she had hepatitis C – and so did I. I am lucky. Although I have the virus I have not, so far, had any symptoms: my liver is not badly scarred and I haven’t needed any treatment.'I know a lot of people with hepatitis C who have not passed it on to their children and, fortunately, my other children are free of it. But somehow I had passed it on to Jazzy, and her liver has already been affected. It is a mother’s worst nightmare. My focus since then has been on getting Jazzy well.’Four years later she left her husband and returned to Britain so her daughter could be treated at King’s College Hospital, the world’s leading centre for paediatric liver disease. In those days Interferon alone was given to boost the immune system. 'It was horrible for her. “I wish I were a mole and could get away from you, ” she once said when I tried to give her her injection. I remember her looking so out of place for hospital visits in a tutu and carrying a fairy wand. But, after two months, her white cell count had dropped so low that the treatment had to stop.’