"Being diagnosed with an acute leukaemia"

I attended my GP to have bloods taken (a year ago) after having an unusually heavy period and some bruising. My GP had squeezed me into the next available clinic. By 4pm the same afternoon, a Dr from the practice had phoned me to say I had very unusual results and had to be admitted to hospital asap. I was admitted to GRI the same evening where I was met by the consultant haematologist (Dr Bagot) who told me with relative confidence she was sure I had acute promyelocytic leukaemia, but I would need a bone marrow aspirate to confirm.

She was so sure that we were going to begin part of the treatment right away. She was so kind, her manner and confidence in the diagnosis and treatment really made the difference to my feelings on being diagnosed. It’s never going to be easy to hear that you have cancer, but she made it so I didn’t feel in immediate danger, and that the doctors and nurses would take excellent care of me. I have never doubted them that I would be okay and come out relatively unscathed at the other end!

This initial contact and diagnosis I feel has really shaped how I have dealt with the experience and treatment over the past year. The overall experience of being attended to so quickly by my GP, to the lab staff picking up on my sample to the consultants confirming diagnosis took under 48 hours. 

In the end I spent 6 weeks at the Beatson hospital under yet more excellent doctors and nurses. As this was during a Covid lockdown, I had no visitors for this time period, so really appreciated any contact time with the nursing staff, who did try their best to spend even just a few extra minutes chatting as they were aware that a lot of patients were finding the isolation difficult.  I finished treatment in November, 3 days before I turned 30.  

I’ve still got some years of monitoring ahead of me, but I’m so thankful to our NHS and all the services that have allowed me to be here to tell this story!