Am I strong enough to go through this again?
…This is what I asked myself when I was diagnosed with cancer for the second time.
My name is Chloe, and I was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when I was 12 years old. Treatment was really tough, but I got through it. I was three years into remission, when I spotted tiny red marks on my skin. When I went to the doctors to get the marks checked out, tests confirmed the worst: it had come back. My heart sank when the doctor said those words and my family and I had to go through it all over again.
I was 17 and halfway through my A-Levels when I spent ten weeks on the Young Person’s Unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Luckily, due to my age, my mum was allowed to stay with me on the ward. I don’t know what I would have done without her. As it was lockdown, I wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital, so I couldn’t see the rest of my family or friends, I missed them so much. However, when I walked onto the ward it was not what I was expecting. My bedroom was decorated with really cool wall art and didn’t look like a hospital room at all. Everyone else on the ward was a similar age to me. We got to play games, have pizza nights and had cooked breakfasts on Fridays, which really cheered me up after days of treatment.
I then had to have chemotherapy five days a week which made me feel really sick. As I don’t live in Birmingham, it would have taken me four hours a day to travel back and forth. That’s when QE Hospital Birmingham Charity stepped in and gave us free accommodation and parking just a 5-minute walk from the hospital! It made a huge difference and meant my dad could also stay, giving both mum and I that extra support.
The care I received at the QE was amazing and the staff really got me through what was the toughest time of my life. I am now 12 months in remission and so grateful to the hospital and the Charity for everything they have done for me and my family.
QE Hospital Birmingham Charity made what was the worst time of my life be the best it could possibly be. It provides so much for cancer patients from lifesaving state-of-the-art technology and decorating wards that make you feel more at ease during treatment, to blankets that keep you warm during radiotherapy and lollipops that take away the metallic taste that Chemotherapy leaves behind.
This is my story, but there have been thousands of cancer patients and their families who have faced the same battle and continue to face.
Please join me in supporting the Cancer Appeal so the Charity can help more cancer patients in the future by donating at the top of the page.
