A 25-year-old woman from West Belfast is sharing her experience of cancer in order to raise awareness about the importance of early diagnosis. Maria Austin, a classroom assistant, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in January. She was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to freeze her eggs to preserve the possibility of having children in the future.
Chemotherapy and cancer treatment can affect fertility, but Maria’s recent PET scan revealed that her chemotherapy has worked and the tumour has shrunk. She will now commence radiotherapy treatment.
Sam Clarke, a 51-year-old man from Bangor, County Down who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2015 and underwent a stem cell transplant, agrees that the importance of early diagnosis cannot be overstated, but suggests that this is still an area where many individuals have yet to see significant progress. Underfunding, a lack of resources, and long waiting periods mean that it is difficult for people to receive timely diagnoses or effective treatments, which can exacerbate what is already a very challenging journey.
Maria and Sam are both committed to using what they have learned from their experiences to raise awareness and support others who are dealing with cancer and its aftermath. Maria wants to help young people with cancer who are struggling with weight gain and hair loss, while Sam encourages people to sign up to the stem cell register to help those living with cancer.
Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, occurring when lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, begin to multiply in an abnormal way and collect in the lymph nodes. The most common symptom is a painless swelling in the lymph nodes in areas such as the neck, armpit, or groin. In Northern Ireland, the incidence of cancer in individuals aged 18-49 has risen by 20% in the past 25 years, from 859 cases in 1993 to 1,076 cases in 2019, according to research by Queen’s University Belfast and the NI Cancer Registry
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