Yuli van der Molen had only been home for 20 minutes when the doctor rang and told her to come back to the hospital. The scan results would typically take a week – but hers were urgent, the doctor could tell that at first glance.
It was a cold day in January 2024, and Van der Molen, just 20 at the time, rushed back with her parents. She remembers the diagnosis hitting hard: the doctor explained she had Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer that affects the body’s lymphatic system, the network of vessels, nodes and organs that form part of the wider immune system. It was stage four – the most advanced.
