A woman was told her incredibly itchy shoulder which bled when scratched was cancer after dismissing it for months as a heat rash.
Evie Daniels, 26, started suffering from irritation in 2019 which developed into a small lump as the hot summer weather cooled off into winter, HullLive reports.
But it was not until March 12 last year that the sweet shop assistant was told that her night sweats, tiredness and 'scratch that wouldn't go away' was Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Evie from Bridlington, North Yorks said: "The prospect of facing your own mortality in your twenties isn’t something you expect to happen.
"[I was] suffering with excruciatingly irritated skin that was itching all the time, resulting in me scratching myself until I was red raw and bleeding.
"I started showing symptoms with unbearably itchy skin, tiredness and the odd night sweat, but with it being summer, it was impossible not to blame all my symptoms on the weather."
She says in hindsight, that she is fairly certain that she came across a lump a few months later in November but "just tried ignoring it".
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Evie was given her first dose of chemotherapy on April 6 2020 after doctors warned her it could leave her unable to have children, particularly as coronavirus restrictions closed embryo retrieval centres.
Fear of becoming infertile rocked Evie and her "incredibly supportive" boyfriend of six years Tom, but Evie decided to waste no time and start her treatment.
Evie went on to receive chemotherapy every second Monday from then onwards for six months which caused both hair loss and "chemo brain".
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She said: "It was around then that my hair began falling out, which was a bigger loss than I had prepared myself for.
"I couldn’t cope with having it come out in clumps anymore, so we made a fun situation out of it and I Facetimed some family and shaved my head."
"It just makes me very forgetful and unable to focus on anything for a long period of time, I think the mental effects and physical strains still have a big effect on me now," she said.
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Brave Evie is now six months out of treatment and has "everything crossed for a good result" in her next scan.
She added: "I’ve got another PET scan in March and two weeks after that I’ll find out my status on whether I’m in remission or if I need more treatment – I’ve got everything crossed for good results."
After her own experience, Evie has joined forces with friend and fellow lymphoma survivor Charlotte Cox who has launched the charity Lymphoma Out Loud aimed at spreading awareness about the cancer.
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