At TWENTY, Katie Young never imagined she would be diagnosed with cancer. But when she suffered severe chest pains at work, her colleagues urged her to get it checked out.
Now, almost a week after her first chemotherapy treatment, Katie, of Bricknell Avenue in west Hull, says it was by accident that she found out she had the disease.
"I got chest pains one day in February," she said. "It lasted about half an hour and I've never had it that bad since. Every now and again, I get chest pains and get breathless, but never that extreme.
"Normally, I wouldn't ever go to hospital or doctor's with anything like that, but people at work told me to and it is a good job I did because I found it by accident."
Katie, a manager at Schuh in St Stephen's, was called to her doctor's a few weeks later, when she was told it could be Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer.
She said: "I got called into the doctor's and I had no idea what it was about. I didn't expect it to be anything like that.
"I went before work one day, not having a clue what it was going to be. I was really upset at that point because I'd never heard of Hodgkin lymphoma. It was a massive shock."
Now, a month after her diagnosis, Katie says she is determined to get better and make the most of her life. She said: "I was pretty crushed to be honest – what 20-year-old wants to lose all of their hair? At first, I didn't really know what it was and I didn't know the statistics or anything. "I've ordered my wig though, which I'm happy with. That was the main thing. "It sounds silly but I'm excited to get back to work and back to normal and try to make the most of my life now."
SUPPORT: Katie on her sister Sarah's wedding day, with her mum Janet.Katie, who lives with her parents, David, 52, and Janet, 47, has surprised her family and herself by how positive she has been so far. "I've dealt with it a lot better than I expected to," she said. "It was a massive shock and I was really upset and then something just clicked and I thought 'I just need to get on with it'. Sitting there crying is not going to help me, I just need to get on with the treatment and focus on getting better. "At first, I was really private about it because I just didn't know how to deal with it myself and, in the end, I realised it was nothing to be embarrassed about. I just wanted to tell my story to try to help other people." Katie started her first bout of chemotherapy last week and has 11 more treatments to go over the next six months.
Katie undergoing her first treatment of chemotherapy."They're hoping to get rid of the lymphoma after about four sessions of chemotherapy, so I'll have another scan. If it's gone, I will carry on with my chemotherapy and, if not, they will move me onto a different one, but that will be a lot more intense than the one I'm on now. "I'm trying not to think about that until it comes." Katie says her doctors are unsure how long she has had the lymphoma, but was told only one per cent of the biopsy was cancerous. Although this is good news, she knows she has a long way to go. She said: "With lymphoma, you can have it weeks, months or it could have been there years. The mass is quite large that is in my chest, which is why I was finding it quite difficult to breathe and getting chest pains and it going up into my neck. "I'm really prone to other infections. The lymphoma really attacks my immune system as well, so I'm more prone to other cancers now for the rest of my life."
Katie's dad David, who has raised more than £2,300 for the Teenage Cancer Trust in the past week, said it has been difficult seeing his child diagnosed with cancer.
David said: "It was terrible. I'm still not over the shock really now, but it took me a good week trying to keep it together.
"We went to the hospital with Katie but she wouldn't let us come in at first. It is a shock really when they tell you your child has got cancer. It is like your world collapses.
"It's painful for me watching her go through it, because I went and sat through her treatment with her. She was really brave, a lot braver than I would be."
David is planning to shave off his moustache, which he has had for 35 years, on Wednesday, June 11, exactly six weeks after Katie's first chemotherapy treatment.
A Just Giving page set up to support the Teenage Cancer Trust raised about £1,500 in 24 hours. He said it is his way of giving something back and raising awareness, as well as giving Katie something to focus on.
He said: "I would like to thank everyone who has donated and people who are going to donate as well. It has really touched my heart.
"Everybody thinks it is not going to affect you, but sometimes it does. I never thought any of my children would have cancer."
To help, text KYHL93 and your amount in pounds to 70070 or visit justgiving.com/MoustacheMustGo to donate.
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