BRAVE MUM BEATS ‘BIG C’
Ash leigh ,31, who has shared her blood cancer battle on social media, is given the all-clear
A courageous mum who has been fighting blood cancer is looking to the future after being told she is now in complete remission from the illness.
AshleighPalmer,31,wasdiagnosed with stage 2 Lymphocyte-rich classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in August 2019, despite showing no signs of feeling unwell.
After discovering a painless lump on her collar bone in May last year, she decided to see a doctor and was referred to Sunderland Royal Hospital for an ultrasound that July.
Further tests led to Ashleigh’s diagnosis and – in September 2019 – she began to undergo chemotheraphy at Sunderland Royal Hospital.
In November, doctors told theWashingtonmum-of-three that her treatment was working and said she was in remission–amajormilestoneonher road to recovery. Now earlier this month, Ashleigh was giventheincrediblenewsthatshe is now in complete remission after finishing her last bout of treatment earlier in 2020.
She told the Echo: “My last chemo was on February 6 and six weeks later I had a PET scan, which is how they detect cancer.
“The scan came back clear ofcancer,butshowedsomeabnormalities on my lungs and doctors were not sure what they were.
“Because of the nature of these things, you have to give it a certain amount of time so I had to wait 12 weeks to get it checked out again.
“But there was nothing there, which was great. I had the scan on the Thursday and then,ontheFriday,Igotthecall telling me was clear of cancer.”
Overthecourseofhertreatment,Ashleighhadatotalof12 sessions of chemotheraphy at Sunderland Royal Hospital’s Phoenix Unit.
Like other cancer patients, Ashleigh had to cope with the emotional and physical loss of her hair, with the support of Sunderland’s Wonderful Wig Company as well as the toll her illness took on her mental health and well-being.
Aftercomingtotermswith hershockdiagnosis,thecourageous mum decided to share anddocumenthercancerjourney through her social media channelsandtheEcho,inhope it would help others going through their own experience with cancer and raise awarenessoftheneedtogetchecked.
Ashleigh and husband Stewart Palmer held a charity party, which raised £3,000 for SunderlandRoyalHospital’sPhoenix Unit.