Just 3 weeks after giving birth to my second child, I was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukaemia).
Then it all made sense, the cold sweats, the extreme tiredness and bruising, all of this I had put down to
becoming a new Mum.

The doctors sent me for a blood test, after it showed my blood counts were abnormal I then had to have
a bone marrow. This involved taking a sample of my marrow from a bone in my lower back.
All of this took place within a couple of hours,

I will never forget this day. I remember being sat on the hospital bed breastfeeding my baby
when a man in a smart suit walked in. Little did I know that he was going to become my cancer
consultant, a man I would be putting my whole faith in.
He told me that the results from the bone marrow were not good news, that I had a form of Leukaemia.
I didn’t know anything about this disease, I had no idea what it meant but I knew it had a connection with cancer.
My first question was “Am I going to die?” I was terrified, numb and shocked.

Just a couple of days later, I fed my baby for the last time and then started the chemotherapy.
I knew I had to have the chemo to give me a chance of surviving this illness but I knew I was going to lose my
hair and feel so ill. I was determined to not let the chemo make me sick (I had heard such awful stories of the
sickness that comes with it). I ate a huge chocolate muffin on my first course of treatment and told myself
I could beat it!

I did lose my hair but I managed to keep the sickness at bay.

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Stapehill
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Dorset
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