Olivia Burke
A young woman has urged people to listen to their bodies after she was diagnosed with cancer due to her spotting a strange symptom which only emerged when she drank alcohol.
Lucy Wiswould-Green, 24, explained that she first realised something wasn't right when she began to feel excessively tired - although she initially put this down to her physically demanding dance degree.
The Salford University student was practicing for 12 hours a day, so brushed off her fatigue and thought it was just come with the territory of being on a strenuous course - until other concerning symptoms started to rear their head.
Lucy, from Lincoln, noticed that she had a few lumps in her neck, while an ultrasound also located one in her chest.
Advert
On top of that, each time a drop of booze passed her lips, she would suffer from 'night sweats and a big rash'.
She explained: "I was getting symptoms from October. Night sweats and a big rash every time I had a drop of alcohol.
"I first went to the doctor in January. I didn't feel unwell, but I thought I should go get checked out. It was mainly tiredness really. I just felt more tired than normal but as a dancer, you struggle to know where to draw the line.
"It was by the end of March that I started noticing some lumps in my neck and an ultrasound located another one in my chest. The one in my neck started to become a massive lump.
Advert
"Everything came back clear despite the size of it. It was like a big golf ball and I struggled to move my collarbone. The next morning I just wasn't settled with the result so I rang the doctors and requested a CT scan."
Chillingly, the signs Lucy had been spotting were all to familiar - as three years earlier, her mum had gone through exactly the same thing.
However, as her mother Melissa had been 'really poorly in the build up to her diagnosis' and she was not, Lucy said that neither of them 'were overly worried' that she would be facing the same health problem.
"I was dancing 12 hours a day so I never thought I could have done that if I had cancer," the 24-year-old added.
Advert
Doctors later diagnosed Lucy with Hodgkin lymphoma, which the NHS describe as a 'relatively aggressive cancer that can quickly spread through the body'.
It is a type of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, which is essentially a network of vessels and glands throughout the body, that has been known to cause pain in the lymph nodes when drinking alcohol.
Mum Melissa had received the same news in 2019, before being given the all-clear in April 2020 - but her daughter was left devastated that she was 'going to watch me go through what she had'.
Lucy continued: "He started telling me what it was but I already knew as I said my mum had had it.
"She had survived all of that only to watch her daughter go through the exact same thing."
Advert
Lucy was forced to pause her studies to undergo gruelling chemotherapy treatment and struggled with the side-effects, but thankfully, she had her mother by her side.
The dance student explained: "I can't explain what chemo feels like, what the symptoms are or how it makes you feel. It's not just feeling sick and tired, it's just horrific.
"But when I was having it and she was there with me, she knew exactly what I was feeling. It was quite relieving actually because I didn't have to try and explain what I needed."
Somehow, Lucy found the strength to do some good in the world while she was recovering.
Advert
She raised cash for the Teenage Cancer Trust by rollerskating 300 miles around her hometown of Lincoln, ran the Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK, donated her hair and made more than 200 hand-painted cards for people who would be alone at Christmas.
Lucy explained: "I was keen to do something physical, something that was going to be helpful to raise money for the charity but also help get me back to uni in September.
"My doctor told me that I wasn't going to be able to go back in September to do a full-time dance course and I was like, 'Watch me'. I was not going to let it get the best of me. I was going to go back and finish my degree."
Lucy went on to graduate with a first-class dance degree as well as scooping the university's outstanding commitment award - as well as being given the all clear from Hodgkin lymphoma.
Her lecturer described her as an 'unstoppable force'...and I think we can all concur.