A young woman was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer after wrongly assuming low iron levels were causing tiredness.
Jess Mellor was 19 when doctors told her that she had chronic myeloid leukemia - a type of cancer that affects white blood cells in the body.
University student Jess was in her second year of an Aerospace Engineering degree at the University of Leeds when she began to experience extreme fatigue.
She was so tired that she would need to take two-hour naps within a few hours of waking up every day and she was also experiencing dizziness and a lack of appetite, reports Yorkshire Live.
As a vegetarian, Jess assumed that her symptoms were indicators of anaemia - a red blood cell iron deficiency that often causes tiredness.
But Jess said that she was "stunned" when the results of her blood test revealed that she had blood cancer.
She said: "They told me it would take a week for the blood test results to come back but they called me the next day to say my white blood count was really high and they thought it was chronic myeloid leukemia.
"I didn’t know how to feel about it- cancer is a big word but when they said that most people are in the chronic phase and would ‘probably have to take a pill a day for the rest of my life,’ I felt okay.
"I was thinking I didn’t need chemo and I felt alright about it."
But, shortly before Christmas 2020, Jess was told that the cancer was in the "blast phase", which is when it is at its most aggressive.
Doctors told Jess that she would need to spend five months in hospital and go through two rounds of intensive chemotherapy, as well as a stem cell transplant.
Jess said: "I was a bit stunned by the whole thing but for me the biggest thing was having to defer uni because I was having a really good time with my mates.
"I couldn’t take it all in at once. It felt like such a long time to be in hospital for, especially because as it turned out I was just in one room. I had no idea how I was going to cope with that."
Another thing that Jess struggled with was feeling "ugly", as she was losing the hair on her head, as well as her eyebrows and eyelashes.
"When I lost my lashes and eyebrows that was a big thing for me. They wouldn’t let me wear eyelashes because I could have a reaction to the lash glue. I felt really ugly", Jess said.
She added: "I remember talking to my friends and saying my brows are thinning and I really don’t want to lose them. My friends were really surprised by it."
Jess had her stem cell transplant in April 2021 and she said that this was when her situation really hit her, as she was very poorly afterwards.
“I couldn’t properly stand up or eat or drink anything for about a week", she said, "I had to get all my food and nutrients through a drip. I also had Mucositis and felt absolutely horrendous.
"At that point they let my parents in, both of them. I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t done that. They read to me and were doing everything they could."
Jess is now nine-months post stem cell transplant and is back at university, but having to live on her own because she still has low immunity to illness.
She said: "I’m having to work around the fatigue I have from my treatment but it is good to be back because I felt so isolated at home.
"My transplant nurse advised to wait another year and said it was too soon but, for me, starting again this year was the only option - the treatment impacted my immune system so much I have been alone so wanted to have a social life again.
"I had been feeling like I wasn’t really doing anything with my life. Living alone took a lot of getting used to but I don't mind it so much now and it's better than being back in hospital."
Jess said that she has even started to go back to the gym and going on walks, which is a big step for her because she was unable to walk very far after her transplant.
"I wasn’t able to look this far in to the future at that time, I was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to build up my muscles again so am pleased with how far I have come", Jess said.
Jess is now on oral chemotherapy and she has been supported through this journey by the charity Young Lives vs Cancer and a dedicated social worker, Harriet.
And Jess has that she doesn't think she would be where she is now without Harriet, who helped her to get back on her feet after such a lifechanging illness.
Rachel Kirby-Rider, Chief Executive at Young Lives vs Cancer said: "Going through cancer when you’re young is life shattering, you have big plans and dreams and then cancer comes along and puts a line through it all.
"Children and young people we support now are facing this as well as the added pressure of an ongoing pandemic.
"On top of isolation and fear, many young people have had to face news and treatment alone without someone holding their hand, due to restrictions.
"After an especially tough couple of years for young people we support, we believe every win is an achievement. Whether that’s graduating, getting that first job or some days just putting one foot in front of the other."
