A 20-year-old woman who thought she had the flu was diagnosed with blood cancer after doctors initially told her she had a UTI.
Olivia Jennings, from Melbourne, Australia came down with flu-like symptoms for several months, a cough that she could not shake off and a lump above her collarbone which was painful to touch.
After struggling to cope with the symptoms, Olivia went to the doctor where she was initially diagnosed with a UTI despite showing no signs of the infection.
When she woke up sweating the next morning and decided to go to a private hospital instead.
By chance, the doctor had recently had a kidney stone, which only showed up on a CT scan, so he pushed for Olivia to have one in the hope of ruling out anything more serious after an ultrasound came back clear.
That is when the healthy 20-year-old, who had never smoked and barely drank alcohol was given the terrible news. Olivia described the doctor as "looking pale" when delivering the cancer diagnosis.
She told Daily Mail: "He [the doctor] said I don't have a kidney stone but I have swollen lymph nodes all throughout my stomach and fluid on my heart as well.
"It was complete shock - when he mentioned my heart I thought 'that's it for me, I'm going to die'. At that point the doctors were pretty sure it was cancer."
Olivia then spent a week undergoing further tests, including a biopsy, which confirmed she had cancer in her neck, chest, stomach and pelvis.
On January 25, 2023, Olivia was diagnosed with Stage 3B Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She was given the news alongside her mum and said she knew what type of cancer it was due to singer Delta Goodrem's diagnosis in July 2003 at the age of 18.
She said about receiving the news: "It was a strange feeling and for some reason the first thing that came to my mind was 'I never got to get married', which is something I didn't realise I cared so much about."
One week after being told she had a UTI, Olivia was starting her round of chemotherapy. She has been receiving treatment for five months and has only three sessions remaining with the cancer "almost gone" and she does not require any surgery as first planned.
Despite her healthy lifestyle and no family history of cancer, the doctor explained to Olivia that Hodgkin's Lymphoma is "just one of those things".
She said: "It's just one of those cancers where your body just messes up, which is quite frustrating but thankfully I was in good position to go through chemo because I've been taking such good care of my body."
Olivia, now 21, has not been able to work or study since her cancer diagnosis but has been able to make money from renting out dresses from her wardrobe.
