ABOUT to start her GCSEs and with her whole life ahead of her, Ellie Philpotts didn’t worry too much when she caught what she thought was a common bug.
But in a “scary whirlwind”, her cold-like symptoms turned out to be far worse than she and doctors expected.
Ellie Philpotts, now 28 and living in London, says: “I was just starting my GCSE year and around September I started to feel breathless after walking for just a few minutes.
“Then I started waking up dripping wet with sweat in the morning.
“The lymph nodes on my neck were swollen, one bigger than the others, and I had just weird general fatigue.
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“I also lost my appetite, I wasn’t hungry at all - it was really hard to eat and swallow and my skin was itchy and no amount of scratching made it better.
“It didn’t feel like a cold, but the symptoms are very similar to a virus so I don’t blame the doctors for initially thinking the same.
“Especially on my first visit - they weren’t worried, it was winter and lots was going around.”
The schoolgirl went back to her doctor three times before they referred her to hospital for tests.
A few days later, she was diagnosed with the cancer Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Stage 2B and was put on life-saving treatment straight away.
Now Elllie wants to spread the word about cancer symptoms and what young people need to be on the lookout for during World Cancer Research Fund’s Cancer Prevention Action Week (February 19-25).
She tells Sun Health: “I was diagnosed at 15, and the blood cancer I had is one of the most common in young people and teenagers.
“It was so scary and such a whirlwind, I was at an age where I was planning my future and it felt like that was being taken away from me.”
Ellie, originally from the West Midlands, says she had been unwell for “a few months” before her diagnosis.
A few weeks after her first GP appointment, Ellie returned to her GP, certain that something more sinister was happening.
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“On my second visit, they did think the breathlessness was a worry, so they diagnosed me with asthma and I was given an inhaler.
“But nothing helped and the night sweats were getting worse and worse so I went back.
“Initially, I didn’t take much notice and I wasn’t really worried.
“And even on my third trip to the GP I never imagined it could be cancer."
'No one was worried'
It was during this visit that the GP sat up and took notice and referred her to hospital.
“It was getting harder to breathe and something wasn’t right.
“I was referred to hospital on the 20th January 2011 and underwent chest X-rays which showed some unusual masses.”
Doctors then began to worry and kept Ellie in for further tests.
Nine days later - after more tests at different hospitals - Ellie was told she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma Stage 2B - a blood cancer that attacks the lymphatic system.
I was so scared and felt panicked - you hear cancer and you automatically think death," she says. I also felt embarrassed to tell my friends at school.
Ellie
Around 2,100 people are diagnosed in the UK each year, and it is more common in young adults.
Ellie syas: “I had three masses in total but the main one was wrapped around my windpipe which is why I was breathless. It was 9cm long and 6cm wide.
“The other two were in the same area."
Thankfully, at Ellie’s stage, there is a 90 per cent survival rate five years or more after diagnosis. But naturally, Ellie was terrified.
“I tried to stay calm. You hear cancer and you automatically think death," she says.
“I also felt embarrassed to tell my friends at school.
“Already I hadn’t been socialising because I’d been so unwell and now I felt even more isolated.
“I didn’t want to feel like a victim and I didn’t want people to look at me differently.”
Ellie was diagnosed on the Friday and began treatment the Monday.
She says: “I was a day patient for my treatment so I could go home every night which kept some sense of normality.
“But I was there from Monday to Friday, all day long. I had four cycles of chemo, each one lasting a month so I missed a lot of school and seeing friends.”
Ellie also had to deal with the horrible side effects of chemotherapy.
She says: “I felt sick and threw up a lot at the beginning, I felt tired and then came the hair loss.
“At 15 losing my hair was awful. I tried to embrace wearing a wig but felt so self-conscious and worried that other people would notice.
“I was also taking steroids, which famously gives people what they call a ‘moon face’ - so your face just looks big and round and puffy.
“I felt worse about that than my hair loss. I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise myself.”
Ellie was thankful that her side effects weren’t as bad as the other patients around her.
She says: “It was also really sad because I was in a children’s ward but I was a teenager, so I was surrounded by some very poorly little kids.
“I spent my days studying when I felt well enough - I was so worried about falling behind. I had a hospital tutor too so I could stay up-to-date with my classes.
“When I think about that time I can picture the ward exactly, parts have stuck with me for life, like the smell and certain foods that we got served all the time."
Ellie, who’s a massive Taylor Swift fan, socialised with the other teenage inpatients in the Teenage Cancer Trust Ward around her treatment times.
She says: “That ward was incredible. It’s fun and lively and they hold pizza nights and things like that.
“You have support there and you meet other people going through what you’ve been through. It helps you stop feeling lonely and isolated.”
Bright future
Ellie’s body responded well to her chemotherapy and the teenager was given the amazing news that she was cancer-free on May 3, 2011.
She says: “Five years later I was withdrawn from oncology and then was referred to a clinic which looks after the ongoing symptoms or new problems that can arise from blood cancers.”
Ellie is aware that as a cancer survivor, she could be at higher risk of developing secondary cancers later in life.
You meet people that sadly don’t survive the disease and you’re left with guilt around that.
Ellie
So tries hard to make consciously healthy decisions about fitness and what she eats, to avoid any preventable cancers that can arise.
Ellie finished school, went to university, and moved to London to become a journalist specialising in health, adding: "I now live a very normal life with my boyfriend!
“Cancer never leaves you. It’s always there and in a way, actually made me more confident about life and the future.”
Ellie also works closely with lots of charities to help other young people going through treatment and diagnosis.
“Doctors might not immediately think of cancer in teenagers with symptoms like mine, so I'd encourage other young people to know what is normal for them.
“There’s a low awareness rate of blood cancers, and a lot of people are diagnosed in A&E because it gets missed by GPs.
“There’s also a huge gap in aftercare of young cancer patients with their mental health, too.
“I was never offered counselling at the time... It’s a hard thing to go through at any age but as a teenager, you do feel lost.
“You meet people that sadly don’t survive the disease and you’re left with guilt around that, questioning why you survived but they didn’t.
“I want to offer information and hope to young people."
Ellie urges people to sign up as a stem cell donor to help save the lives of people who have blood cancers and need a transplant.
She says: “To sign up all you do is spit in a tube. That’s it!
“And if you’re a match to a patient then someone will contact you and 90 per cent of the time all you’ll do is spend a few hours in a hospital donating through a drip.
“The other 10 per cent is an operation, a bone marrow transplant but again, it’s not as bad as people think and it could save someone’s life!”
You can find out more about stem cell donation by visiting these websites: Anthony Nolan and DKMS UK.
