The three of us are running a 10k race with a difference at the end of September which will mark 1 year since Astrid finished her chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We have chosen CLIC Sargent because as a charity they have really helped us all over the last few months, Astrid especially! 

We are and will be so grateful for any donation no matter how big or small! As they say 'Every little helps' :)  Thanks again!

Astrid, Josh and Nathan

 

 

 

Astrid's Story

My story starts in October 2010 in the first few weeks of freshers at Southampton University; when I first started having back-ache and put it down to sleeping on a lumpy uni halls mattress. Initially the GP diagnosed my pains as an old sports injury and sent me away with painkillers… which did nothing to mask the pain. Over the next few weeks I noticed that any amount of alcohol would fuel my back-ache, leaving me with crippling pain. After visiting my GP again complaining that the pain killers weren’t helping and adding that alcohol was also causing my bad back I was told that I must have developed an intolerance to alcohol and was sent away with stronger pain killers, with the advice of taking both together if these too, were ineffective.

It was only in January 2012 that my worries about alcohol were taken seriously, when my physiotherapist decided to send me for some blood tests and a consultation with a rheumatologist. Despite being in the system for nearly 18 months now, these were the first blood tests taken, and it was the results of these blood tests that changed everything.

On the 12th of April 2012 I had two CT scans, one of my neck and the other of my chest and was transferred to the local TCT unit for further tests. On FRIDAY the 13th of April after a (very painful) biopsy of my neck I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Now all I had to do was inform my parents, who were in France celebrating my mums 50th birthday that their daughter had cancer! (Oh the joys!) The treatment was to be 12 sessions of chemotherapy over a 6 months period, and I started the chemotherapy on the 1st of May 2012, two days after my 20th birthday! – What a birthday present!

6 months later, on the 4th of October I had my last session of chemotherapy to date, and I hope that it will stay this way now. I have come a very long way since April but I still have potentially 10 years of monitoring ahead of me just in case it comes back.

Over the last year I have been helped by several people, be they family, friends, doctors, or nurses; some have just offered kindnesses which were unexpected but so appreciated, and a special thank you goes out to Stavros Constantinou of Cowbridge Rd, Cardiff.

I have also been helped by several charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) but the one, that has stood out the most, is CLIC Sargent, a charity who specifically supports young people and their families to deal with life after the diagnosis of cancer.CLIC Sargent has provided me with a social worker who has been able to answer all of my questions, who has introduced me to new friends, and has helped me face everything head on. I was also provided with a CLIC Sargent nurse who visited my house frequently to dress my PICC line and address any other non-urgent medical issues that I had.

So… I have decided (along with my younger brother, Josh Morgan and Nathan Price, my boyfriend of 3 years) to take part in the survival of the fittest race on the 29th of September 2013. I haven’t been able to do any serious exercise since my back ache first occurred in 2010 so my challenge for 2013 is to get back to full fitness (or as close as I can get) and raise as much money as I can for a charity that I could never thank enough!

 

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