In the summer of 2025, I was working as a kitchen assistant, enjoying spending time with my horses and preparing for the arrival of my first baby.
One day at work, I noticed a lump at the base of my neck. It felt like a swollen lymph node, so I called my GP surgery and was given an appointment that day. My GP was not sure what the lump was and sent me to A&E, where I was prescribed antibiotics. When the lump still hadn’t changed after a week, I was sent for an ultrasound. I was told I had abnormally large lymph nodes and would need a biopsy. A few days after the biopsy, the hospital called to ask me to come in as soon as possible, and I knew it wasn’t good news.
The tests confirmed that I had Hodgkin lymphoma. I was given an information book from Lymphoma Action, which really helped me to understand what I was dealing with. By this point, I was 32 weeks pregnant. I wasn’t able to have a PET/CT scan to determine the exact stage of my lymphoma because of my pregnancy, although the scans I was allowed to have indicated that I was at stage one. At first, the plan was for me to start chemotherapy after my baby was delivered, but the lump in my neck doubled in size within a week. This meant my medical team and I had to discuss starting treatment while I was still pregnant. Cases like mine are very rare, so the team couldn’t tell me for certain what would happen, but I knew it was something I had to do.
I started my first round of ABVD chemotherapy on 22 October 2025. My maternity and Macmillan teams met regularly and worked out a plan for me to be induced at 38 weeks. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work out and I had to have an emergency C-section, which the team had wanted to avoid because chemotherapy can lower immunity and increase the risk of infection.
I had a break from chemotherapy after my baby was born, but it was not long before I was back on treatment again. It was a challenging time, trying to focus on looking after the baby while recovering from a C-section and dealing with the side effects of treatment. Christmas that year was ruined, as I had a round of chemotherapy two days before and felt ill for the whole of Christmas Day. Chemotherapy was quite isolating. I was always the youngest person in the unit, and I got a lot of looks from other people when having treatment while pregnant.
I found that the side effects from treatment ramped up as time went on and got worse with every round. The sickness was the worst part. I felt constantly nauseous and was put off even my favourite foods. No anti-sickness medication worked for me, and even now I still cannot think about the things I ate during that time without feeling sick. I had neuropathy in my fingers and constant fatigue. I also had to have a PICC line fitted to receive chemotherapy, as my veins just couldn’t take any more. I found the additional appointments to check it, and not being able to wash properly because of it, very challenging.
Despite all of this, I still got up and made myself go out – even if it was for a walk. I even had a glass of wine on the odd occasion that I felt up to it. I was headstrong throughout the whole thing and tried to keep a strong mental attitude throughout it all. Seeing my partner, Liam, and our little one waiting for me after every chemo round kept me going. We were fortunate that Liam was able to get a few months off work to look after me and the baby.
I finished my treatment at the end of January 2026. I was very unwell at that point and couldn’t even ring the bell on the last day of treatment because I was so poorly, but I did feel relieved to have finished it. Once I felt stronger, I just wanted to get back to normality. I couldn’t have any beauty treatments while on chemotherapy, but when it finished I went straight back to having my lashes and nails done and going for nights out, within reason, as there was still a risk because of my lowered immunity. The recovery was quite rough but mentally I was OK, and I just got on with it. My oncologist even said that my mental attitude helped me a lot.
I was told on the 18 February that my PET scan was clear and that I was cancer free. It was so good to hear. I have to go back to the clinic every three months for a checkup with my Macmillan team, who were amazing throughout it all. Now, I am looking forward to the future with my family and doing all the things that we enjoy together.
I am sharing my story to raise awareness about lymphoma, as I had never heard of it before and certainly didn’t know it was a form of blood cancer. I felt completely normal before I was diagnosed. Apart from the lump, I had no other symptoms. It just wasn’t something I expected as a person in my twenties. It’s also easy to dismiss symptoms when you are expecting a baby and assume they are part of pregnancy, but my advice is to always get things checked, even if it is just to rule anything out.