A 24-year-old fitness instructor received devastating news after what she thought was just a pulled muscle in her neck.
Lily Venus visited her GP, complaining about neck pain - but she assumed she had just “tweaked” it during one of her exercise classes or slept funny.
She had had a couple of other odd symptoms before including feeling fatigued and light-headed, but didn’t think much of it.
However, Lily, from Winchester, Hampshire, had her world turned upside down when she discovered it wasn’t just a pain in her neck, but that she had tumours in both sides of her neck, her chest and her lung.
Now 26, Lily was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkins Lymphoma - a cruel type of blood cancer - and she had to undergo a number of gruelling rounds of chemotherapy.
Lily said: "In September 2021, I was teaching about six exercise classes a week via Zoom.
"I started experiencing this strange light-headedness, but I didn't think much of it.
"I also was incredibly fatigued. I would nap at least once a day, and waking up in the morning was difficult regardless of how much sleep I'd gotten.
"On November 7, 2021, myself and my long-term partner Ryan went and stayed in a little shepherd's hut in Petersfield [Hants] for two nights.
"The day we left, we drove to York to pick up our new puppy, and on the drive, I had an awkward feeling in my neck. It felt like I had slept funny.
"My symptoms continued for the next week, but I still was under the impression that I was just exhausted due to the new puppy and exercise, and the neck pain was from tweaking my neck.
"At the end of that week, I had a lump come up just above my collarbone. The discomfort was preventing me from being able to teach the upper-body parts of my exercise classes, so I booked a doctor's appointment."
Lily’s doctor told her she needed to go to A&E - which she thought was an “overreaction”.
Two weeks later she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and she was receiving treatment for it at University Hospital Southampton, just before Christmas 2021.
She said: "I was told that because of the chemotherapy, there was a slim chance I could lose my fertility. I was offered IVF, which would have delayed my treatment for about six months.
"I found making this decision really tough. I talked to Ryan about it and he said, 'Without you, there is no baby. It's important we get you healthy as soon as possible'.
"I am so grateful this is how he viewed it because my cancer was already stage four and Hodgkins Lymphoma is fast-growing. Who knows where I would be if I hadn't started chemotherapy straight away."
She had 12 rounds of chemotherapy over six months and was able to have a lower dose on her last eight sessions because of how well the cancer was responding to treatment.
She has now been in remission for 12 months, adding that she is 'so grateful' to her doctors for catching it quickly.
"I feel like catching my cancer at the stage it was is one of the reasons I was able to achieve remission", she said.
Lily has kept her fertility and is now rebuilding her life, with support from her partner of eight years Ryan Lynch, a 36 year old gardening business owner.
She added: "I am most looking forward to life, every little tiny bit of it and everything in between.
"I have always dreamt of being a mother, and not knowing if I would be able to achieve that title in my life has only made me long for it even more.
"During my treatment, I had to accept changes such as losing my hair, not being able to show up for people as I had been, and not being able to live my life as I had been.
"After my treatment, I had to accept that I will never have that year again.
"I now have lots of new allergies, and my heart and other organs will forever be weaker than they once were, but I am so grateful to be able to move onwards and upwards with a new appreciation for how wonderful life is."
