Harriett's Story

Back in January 2022 I gave birth to my beautiful second daughter Izzy , the pregnancy was different from my first I struggled with nausea , fatigue , back to back chest infections but just put it down to pregnancy, after having Izzy I expected to get back to myself but I continued to struggle with rapid weight loss , a lot of chest pain ,extreme fatigue.

I didn’t feel myself but wasn’t getting anywhere with the doctors and just thought I was struggling with 2 children under 2 . They even suggested I could be suffering from post partem depression.

After pushing with the doctors I was eventually sent for a chest x ray, this showed I had a 14cm tumour in my chest and it was most likely lymphoma. I also was suffering from superior vena cava syndrome from the tumour as it was blocking the blood from flowing freely to my heart which was quite frightening.

The veins in my chest and neck had been sticking out but I had put it down to breastfeeding.

From here everything moved very quickly a biopsy showed I had a rare type of cancer called primary mediastinal b cell lymphoma, I was admitted immediately to hospital, having to spend time away my babies was the worst thing but I was so relieved I finally knew what was wrong with me and that it was treatable.

That summer I had 6 rounds of RCHOP chemotherapy, I got to go home about my first round and I had lots of family support but having to go through this whilst still caring for my babies was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do . My treatment plan was to have radiotherapy aswell but I had such a great response from the chemotherapy I didn’t need it in the end , my last scan showed the tumor had shrank to around 7cm and there was no evidence of cancer so I had achieved remission. I never believed cancer could happen to me but I just feel so grateful to be in remission and try not to worry about the what ifs of it ever coming back. And it’s taught me to not brush off any symptoms if you feel something isn’t right always push with the doctors for an answer.

We are so grateful to the Ben Saunders foundation for this kind gesture and it really means the world xxx