A teen was told she had anaemia the day before being told doctors thought she had leukaemia.
Ruby Walvin, a 23-year-old student at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) studying songwriting and performance and currently living in the Georgian Quarter of the city, found herself feeling fatigued but put it down to "student life" but was so pale she was "almost see-through". Three months later the then 19-year-old was walking home from a gig and collapsed.
At this point, other symptoms had begun to appear such as weight loss, bruising and shortness of breath. Ruby took herself to her local walk-in centre and was told she was anaemic before sending her home, although the swift diagnosis didn't sit right with the teen.
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After being sent home from the walk-in, she went with a friend to the student health clinic later that day. The nurse who saw her noticed how pale she was and sent Ruby for a blood test before sending her to A&E. Her parents travelled up from Leicester to see their daughter while she was in hospital. The next day, doctors woke Ruby up to tell her the devastating news that they suspected she had a number of illnesses, one of which being leukaemia.
Ruby said: "I was sent to A&E along with my bloods. My parents came down from Leicester to be with me as I was kept on a halfway ward. At the time, I didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. It wasn’t until the next day when the doctors woke me up and listed off a few illnesses that it could be that I heard the word “leukaemia”, and I knew then that my life was about to change.
They then moved me to a women’s cancer ward where I waited over the weekend till I could have a bone marrow biopsy on the Monday. I remember waiting for the results and that night hearing the other women on my ward throwing up and suffering due to the chemo and thinking: 'Is this what I have to come?'
"The biopsy confirmed it was B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) and that afternoon I was sent by ambulance to The Leicester Royal Infirmary. I knew I needed my family around me during treatment so I decided that I would go back to my hometown for treatment. It was hard saying goodbye to my close friendship group though. We spent so much time together up until that point."
Ruby started her first round of chemotherapy the day after she arrived in Leicester, with the side effects of the chemotherapy and steroid being that she was always hungry, leading to her eating to the point where she would be sick. As well as the prolonged hunger Ruby also suffered from her face swelling from the water retention, losing her hair and getting pneumonia.
She added: "The effect on my mental health was very bad, and I got very low moods. With the help of Leukaemia Care I accessed counselling.
"My mum stayed at the hospital every night to support me. When I woke from morphine-induced nightmares I needed her there to calm me down. When I was really poorly, I needed her to wash me, put me to bed and get me dressed. She cooked for me and took me to hospital. It was tough being so reliant on other people after being independent, but you need your family at a time like that."
Ruby has since been given the all-clear and is back at LIPA and about to start her third year later this year. She said: "I am in remission and have been since the first round of chemo, which I am very happy about.
"My treatment finished on 17th July 2021 and went back to university in my second year. I had a chemo hangover but now I am a year free of chemo and about to go into the third year of my degree chemo-free.
"I am trying to build up my fitness, I do suffer from survivor's guilt and PTSD and see a counsellor for this but medically I am back to normal, just every two months I go for a check-up."
For more information on Leukaemia Care and Leukaemia UK’s Spot Leukaemia campaign and how to get involved, head over to the official Spot Leukaemia website at www.spotleukaemia.org. Early diagnosis saves lives.
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