Interview 128

Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease in 1998 after losing weight and finding a lump in her neck. Treatment was chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy to her chest, which put her into remission.

In 1998 she felt a lump in her neck; she had also lost about three stones in weight. She went to her GP who suggested she use her private health insurance to obtain an urgent appointment with a specialist. The next day she saw the specialist, who found lumps in her chest and arranged for a biopsy to be done. This proved that she had Hodgkin’s disease and she was really taken aback by the diagnosis.

She was treated with chemotherapy (ABVD) fortnightly for 12 sessions. After a gap this was followed by radiotherapy to her chest five days a week for a month. This put her into remission and she has since attended regular follow up appointments, which have now become annual.

A year after her diagnosis she felt pains in her chest and bones and panicked that the cancer had returned, but was reassured after being shown that her chest x-rays were completely clear. After it was all over she decided to go for counselling to try to come to terms with having been through a life-threatening experience because she felt it had ‘knocked her off her feet’. Seven years later she is still in remission.

Surviving Hodgkin’s lymphoma gave her the confidence to do an arts degree, which was something…

Age at interview 44

Gender Female

Age at diagnosis 36