Their stories
Young people are the reason behind what we do, that’s why we always want to give them a platform to tell their story.
Stories
Alex Reeds
When I was ill, especially at such a young age, I just kind of got on with the operations and treatment without ever really thinking about the significance of it all. Survivorship, however, was a more difficult concept for me. The impact of cancer doesn’t stop suddenly once treatment is over.
Clare Hudson
I was referred to hospital after I went to my doctor with headaches, a drooping face, spasming muscles and severe fatigue. I was told this was probably migraines and stress but to be sure I had the MRI.
Erica Lee
I was always itchy, everywhere, and especially on my palms and the soles of my feet. I changed detergents, bought new bedding and socks, and I even scratched enough to bleed. One day, my boyfriend noticed I had a lump about the size of a golf ball at the base of my neck.
James Adams
I was meant to be going to Warwick to study physics. A week before I was due to leave I was diagnosed with a brain tumour.I’d been having double vision for a few months but it took me ages to go and get it checked out as I didn’t think it was anything to worry about.
Kirsten Oakes
In August 2014 I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
I started to feel unwell in April 2014, I visited my GP with a sore throat which did not resolve despite antibiotics. I began to feel extremely tired, my face and neck had swollen and I was struggling to breathe.
Lois McLennan
The month before my 23rd birthday, I was taken into hospital and told I had a huge fluid block on my brain.
After fitting a shunt to release the pressure, I was told the reason for this build up was a brain tumour. In a hospital away from home, and awaiting major brain surgery, I was petrified.
Natalie Hazel
June 2012, aged 24, I began suffering with severe back pain and after several visits to the doctors, was told I had Sciatica.
The pain became so bad it had spread down my right buttock and leg/foot. I was sent to Bolton Hospital who told me to ask my Doctor to refer me for a MRI scan, which never happened.
Olivia Buckland
I’ve got seven scars. One’s kinda hardcore because I had to have my lung deflated to access one of my tumours.
I got into rowing when I was in first year at Cardiff so my fitness was at its peak but in January something felt really wrong. I began getting breathless; having night sweats, muscular pains and incredible fatigue.
Phoebe Ratcliffe
I was diagnosed at 18 in 2014. I was diagnosed with a grade 2 frontal glioma. It’s slow growing and I had the operation in November 2014.
My operation was with Henry Marsh at St Georges in tooting. It was successful and they managed to remove most of it although some of it still remains and continues to grow.
Seren Hughes
It was in February of my first year and I started to feel drained of energy with a constant stomach ache and I was extremely bloated.
I went to my GP and he took some blood tests. I got a phone call a day later telling me to go straight to A&E with a post-it note detailing their findings.
Shannon Mackey
My dealings with cancer started when i was 17.
I initially started experiencing strong headaches, that were eventually diagnosed as migraines. They were both incredibly painful and long lasting. These migraines persisted so much that one night my parents took me into the A&E at Bolton Hospital and a scan revealed a growth the size of a tennis ball on the left size of my brain.
Sophie Vohra
I never in my wildest nightmares thought I would end up with a cancer with a fancy name I’d never heard of before at the age of 23. We ‘affectionately’ named my Ewing’s Sarcoma (a bone stemming cancer) Blob and together we have been through a lot.
It all started with me developing the symptoms of sciatica.
Zeena Beale
It’s just stress, it’s just stress’ I kept telling myself. Cambridge is always stressful, and stress can manifest itself in strange, bizarre ways with your body right?
It’s perfectly reasonable to be really tired all the time, to get run-down and develop a dry cough. And according to NHS Choices, back in 2013, night sweats ‘are an embarrassing yet often harmless condition’, so why would I need to worry about something that is ‘harmless’?