A student who was feeling fatigued while studying for her A-levels is urging others with similar symptoms to get themselves checked out. Ikram Gacem dismissed her tiredness as stress from the demands of studying for her exams at first.
But her symptoms persisted and were more extreme than what any of her peers were going through. The then 18-year-old was feeling tired around the clock and would sleep for hours when she got home from college.
Although she knew the intensity of her workload would increase in her second and final year at college, it became clear to Ikram and her family that something more serious was going on. She visited the GP in search for answers.
"I would wake up in the morning, I'd be kind of yawning all the way down to college," she told the Manchester Evening News. "As soon as I’d get in, I would go to sleep and then I'd wake up maybe, like eight, nine, and I'd have lots of work to do.
"All the teachers were pushing because again, exams, A Levels. Not only was it a stressful moment for everyone as a Year 13 student, but I feel like I wasn't quite catching up with everything and I was kind of always running behind."
Despite several trips to the GP, though, Ikram was simply diagnosed with anaemia due to her white blood cell levels being fairly low. She began taking iron tablets but they did little to affect how she was feeling.
She said: "I was going back and forth to the doctors and then, and during the pandemic where I was doing work online, it was the same thing… I'd be very lazy, sleep a lot."
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It wasn't until Ikram found 'a little lump' on her right collar bone, which didn't go away after a week, that she decided along with her mum to go back to the GP. She admits she was very sceptical about it being anything particularly serious.
"We spoke about the topic of cancer two, three weeks before when I was having my appointments and blood tests and so on, and I kind of just scoffed and I was saying to my mum, 'I doubt it, come on like I'm 17-18. Cancer? Don't be silly'", she said.
Ikram had hoped the lump was just a cyst but unfortunately doctors delivered the news that it was in fact Hodgkin's lymphoma. It is a relatively uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system.
"I was very scared, I'm not gonna lie, and because I had just turned 18 no one could come in at all so my mum waited outside the waiting room. When I went inside, I saw there was one doctor and three nurses surrounding me. I sat down and from then on I knew it was going to be bad news or some kind of news.
"I started crying immediately [when the GP said it], I don't even think I knew what the real meaning was. I kind of just broke down and then he let me know, obviously it was cancer. I broke down even more. I had no words.
"I couldn't really speak and they called my mum immediately because she was around the corner, but because of Covid rules and the fact that I had just gone 18, they wouldn't let anyone in," she said.
As she was diagnosed at the height of the pandemic, Ikram, who is now 21, had to inform her friends of the terrible news over FaceTime. However, her mum and dad were an incredible support system for her.
Ikram is now urging young people and students to listen to their bodies and not hesitate to call their GP when something doesn't feel right. She said: "We just think we're tired because of exams but if it's unusual, check it out."
Ikram is currently two years cancer free and is in her third year of university studying law.
"I continued my studies during my treatment which was something that not many people would have done, but mine was during the pandemic so probably was, generally, much easier," she said.
"I’m feeling better mentally because I have overcome certain difficulties I went through but also physically - just because every day is a challenge, getting to know your body better, it's a challenge that I have to go through and I'm glad that it's turned out the way it has turned out."
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