My cough was CANCER

Maddie never imagined her lingering symptoms could be life-threatening

Waking up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat, I ung the blankets off. It’s the middle of winter. Why am I so hot? I wondered.

The night sweats had woken me up a few times recently, and I had an annoying cough.

As a t and healthy 19-year-old who’d spent years as a ballet dancer, I didn’t think it was anything serious.

A few weeks later, in

July 2019, I felt some lumps on my neck above my right collarbone.

I went to my GP the next day, but while blood tests were normal, a CAT scan revealed abnormalities.

I was relieved when three needle biopsies of the lumps all came back clear.

A few weeks later

I ew to California to do a student exchange for six months.

For the rst six weeks I enjoyed college life, even getting to visit New York, but I was losing weight rapidly and my cough was getting worse.

When I coughed up blood while working out at the gym, I went to see a doctor again.

After studying my medical records, he was concerned.

‘Needle biopsies can miss cancer cells. You need surgery to have one of those lumps removed and tested,’ the doctor said.

I’d lost my dad Peter three years earlier to pancreatic cancer and couldn’t fathom that I might have cancer, too.

Not wanting to go through surgery alone, I made the decision to cut my time in America short and y home.

In October 2019, after having one of the lumps removed and tested, the results were in.

‘I’m afraid you’ve got stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma,’ the doc said, explaining it was cancer affecting the body’s lymphatic system.

There were tumours in my neck, chest and left lung, which explained why I’d been coughing so much.

The news was terrifying, but I was also relieved to

nally have answers.

I knew that I wanted to have children one day, so I went through fertility treatment and froze some of my eggs.

Then I started six rounds of chemo.

It was exhausting, made me sick and my bones ached painfully, but losing my hair bothered me the most.

Wearing a wig was uncomfortable and didn’t look or feel like me, so instead I wore stylish headscarves. I even started my own headscarf business called For Andy, named after one of the rst friends I’d made in the cancer community.

Devastatingly, Andy passed away in January 2020, and the business was my way of honouring her.

When my chemo ended in March 2020, there was still activity showing on my PET scan, so I followed it up with radiotherapy.

Finally, in April 2021, I received the best 21st birthday present – I was clear of cancer.

I graduated from uni the following year.

Three years on, I still worry about the possibility of my cancer returning.

But my ordeal has given me a renewed focus and gratitude for the things in life that really matter. ●

I had answers, but the news was terrifying