A woman has told how six months of night sweats and back pain turned out to be signs she had aggressive cancer. Hannah Bird, 24, also lost weight, had rashes and continuous coughing, and experienced back and chest pain.
Worried Hannah said she "went to the doctor three to four times a week" and was dismissed repeatedly before she was eventually given an X-ray and a scan. She was diagnosed with Diffuse large B cell lymphoma - an aggressive cancer - just weeks after getting engaged.
The travel content creator had to put countless holidays on hold. Amazingly she's now cancer-free and completing a tour of bucket list destinations. Hannah is urging people to get a second opinion if they are not satisfied with doctors' diagnosis.
Hannah said: "You know it is bad when they ask for someone to come sit with you while the doctors give you the news. It wasn't a shock - I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis.
"It didn't hit me until I started chemotherapy. I was more devastated that I couldn't travel; we had so many plans. We were looking to buy a house but financially we were screwed. Our lives were destroyed for a year."
Hannah had been suffering from night sweats, losing weight, rashes and continuous coughing for six months. She was on holiday in Paris with her boyfriend Charlie Camper, 23, a professional golfer, when he popped the question, but she was so unwell she couldn't enjoy it fully.
Hannah said: "I felt so bad that day, I slept for most of it. Our engagement plans got destroyed by my diagnosis. We didn't have a normal engagement experience."
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In March 2022 Hannah was away skiing she started suffering back and chest pain and later caught pneumonia. The doctors gave Hannah an x-ray and a CT scan, on her return and the following day she was told she had cancer, on April Fool's Day 2022.
Hannah said: "The tumour was in my left lung - it took up three-quarters of my lung. We found out I was stage four. I was so relieved that they found out what was wrong with me."
Originally doctors thought that Hannah was suffering from lung cancer, they then did a biopsy and three weeks later she was diagnosed with Diffuse large B cell lymphoma - the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Hannah was accepted onto a clinical trial, where she was given immunotherapy non-chemo-invasive drug. Instead of using chemotherapy, this drug is less invasive, it works by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells.
She said: "At my halfway scan my tumour had shrunk by 80%. By September 2022, I had finished chemotherapy all the cancer was gone, which was not normal. I am the only person in the UK to have all of their non-Hodgkin's cancer gone with chemotherapy alone."
Hannah was cleared to travel on October 2022 and has CT scans every 12 weeks to check for any signs of cancer. After not being able to travel for a year, Hannah and her boyfriend Charlie are completing a travel bucket list. Hannah is set to marry on September 16, 2023.
Hannah said: "My partner said I can have a bucket list trip once I have finished my immunotherapy, another one once I had finished my chemotherapy and then another one when I got the all-clear. The first trip we went to Turkey, it was absolutely amazing, and then the second trip we went on was to the Arctic Circle in January. It is possible to have your bucket list, you can travel while going through treatment - you just have to plan ahead and make sure you are close to hospitals if things go wrong."
The couple will be travelling to the Philippines in May and then to Antarctica for their honeymoon in January 2024.
Advising others with cancer symptoms, Hannah, from Bristol, said: "Get a second opinion, I went to the same doctor every single time, I think if I had gone to a different doctor I would have been diagnosed a lot sooner. I went to the doctor three to four times a week - I was so desperate. If you think that something is wrong, request a referral or second opinion by another doctor."
