Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘I thought I had a cold but it turned out to be cancer’
Mum-of-one Kirsten Souter (pictured) was initially diagnosed with tonsillitis, but feared she would die after medics gave her the news she was suffering from advanced Hodgkin lymphoma.
The 33-year-old former Grove Academy pupil had to undergo six months of chemotherapy — and is now celebrating being in remission for nine weeks.
She was given the stage three cancer diagnosis in February and completed her treatment at the city’s Ninewells Hospital in September.
Kirsten, from Whitfield, now says she looks at life “completely differently”. A year ago she started feeling incredibly tired and her weight dropped by two stones in the space of just six weeks.
Speaking to the Evening Telegraph today, she said she initially thought she just had a cold.
And she was “shocked” when she was told there was a 98% chance she had lymphoma.
Kirsten said: “At first I thought that it was a cold. I was generally really run down and tired. Initially the diagnosis was that I had tonsillitis. I had these lumps which had appeared on the left-hand side of my neck and on my collar bone — they were the size of peas. They weren’t sore but they were rock hard and they grew quickly, they were very evident.
“When it wasn’t tonsillitis I thought it was maybe swollen lymph nodes.
“I never thought cancer.”
She admitted: “I’ll be honest, I had no idea what lymphoma was.”
The Dundee City Council social worker said: “They said they were going to do tests to establish if it was Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The Hodgkin was the curable and the more treatable out of the two.”
Kirsten paid tribute to the “bravery” of her eight-year-old daughter Laura and said she had been “amazing” throughout her illness.
She said: “My family and the Maggie’s Centre were incredible in educating her in the type of cancer I was facing.”
The former Dundee West Netball Club player admitted things became difficult during the chemotherapy and she had to cope with the news that she might not be able to have more children.
She added: “That was difficult but I
A DUNDEE mother who thought she had nothing more serious than a common cold was left stunned when she was told she had cancer.
it would be knew I had to stay positive. I started losing my hair really fast into the therapy, which was devastating, I was such a girly girl.”
Over the course of her 12 chemotherapy sessions, Kirsten also had to endure the ordeal of three surgeries, including a bone marrow biopsy.
She said: “It has been a difficult year but I was given the news I was in remission in October.
“The support of my friends and family has left me overwhelmed — they held a fundraiser at the Dundee Social Club in July raising more than £3,400 to support me financially. The work of the medical staff on Ward 34 at Ninewells has been outstanding and without the continual support of the Macmillan nurses, I wouldn’t been able to have got through this.
“My father has recently been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer — I’m going to now support him and pass on my support strategies.”