Well it all started when I woke up with a stiff neck. I assumed I had slept funny the night before, and didn't think much of it. Until the next day a lump appeared on the side of my neck. I felt completely well in myself, but made a doctors appointment anyway. I was told I had another "viral infection" despite no symptoms. Suspicious...but, okay, and I went back to work.

Over the coming days I felt really tired which I put down to being very busy with work and the "viral infection". I was told to rest, and was back to normal after a few days. Still, I had no cold or flu symptoms, but another lump appeared and the pain persisted. I was told I just had muscle aches in my neck, despite no injury.

After countless trips to the GP, A&E and urgent care centres, spending hours begging to be taken seriously, I was getting nowhere. I had even been told it may be dental, despite the colgate smile! And the doctors refused to see me until my dentist ruled out teeth or gum issues. Unfortunately, I was then put on two rounds of two different types of anti biotics which were making me really unwell. Seeing as I had no need to be on them in the first place, I questioned why if they suspected a viral infection, and they said that they just wanted to rule things out...

Fast forwards to 3 weeks of unexplained swollen glands. At this point it doesnt take a medical professional to know something is wrong. I'm doing this alone, and now I don't know where to turn. But I'm trying not to overthink this. But its me...Of course, that is all I am doing whilst trying to juggle everything else in life. Every possible diagnosis was ruled out, and my bloods were fine. So what was going on? (It is important to note here that contrary to popular belief, your full blood count is not a reliable indicator of blood cancer. At the time, I thought that because my counts were normal, I was okay. False hope sometimes is better than no hope).

And so we enter week 4. The lumps are still there. Queue Dr panic. Now they were all listening as 4 weeks is the cut off point for when they start looking into swollen glands. Swollen glands should go back down naturally following a virus or infection. My GP advised I needed an ultrasound which she would refer me for, however it would take a couple of weeks. So I went private the next day instead. The Dr that did my ultrasound advised that they were in fact swollen lymph nodes but it was unclear why they were swollen, and mentioned to me that this could be a type of lymphoma. He also said that it wasnt just two lumps. There were more. And they were big. Shit just got real.

I emailed the scans to my GP immediately and had a telephone consultation the following day. I won't go into the stress of trying to get a GP appointment, throughout this whole process. Even when my GP told me it could be sinister and I needed to be seen urgently, I was told several times to "try again tomorrow". At one point, I was even given an appointment for 3 weeks later.

Just know it took everything in me to not cuss out dem bumboclar...but I digress. That's for a later conversation.

I got a phone call from my GP the following day. She said she was referring me for an urgent cancer investigation and I was going to be seen in 1-2 weeks. She advised me to cancel my family holiday due 2 days later and wait for my appointment. Well, we all know that wasn't going to happen. As I walked towards my gate in Manchester airport, I received a call from a consultant. He advised that due to Christmas my appointment would be delayed but someone would be in touch. I enjoyed my holiday, switched off somewhat, and was present in the moment. But.. no-one