Lauren Gill was stunned to discover she had Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of just 25 after visiting the doctor when drinking a sip of Baileys left her with shooting pains in her neck and arm. The 30-year-old content creator, who is now telling her story as part of Blood Cancer Awareness Month, initially thought she had pulled a muscle at the gym when drinking a glass of wine left her with a numb pain in her neck and shoulders during the summer of 2018.
She said: “I was 24 and making the most of the summer going out for drinks with friends and spending time in the gym. Then one evening after I’d had a glass of wine I felt an intense muscle ache all down my neck and shoulders, but I didn’t think too much of it and assumed I’d pulled a muscle at the gym.”
Lauren continued to get a similar achy feeling every time she had a drink, but was busy with work and didn’t think too much of the twinges. Then just before Christmas she went round to her friends for a festive Baileys and after just one sip she got severe shooting pains down the right side of her neck and arm.
“I was starting to notice a correlation between drinking alcohol and getting pains so I hadn’t drunk alcohol for a while and the pain had gone away. I thought I’d have a sip of Baileys and see what happened.”
Immediately she felt pain in her right arm and shoulder and had to take painkillers as her arm went numb. It was such a severe reaction that she decided to go to the doctors, who gave her blood tests.
“The doctor had never heard of my unusual reaction to alcohol before but gave me some blood tests and when they came back my white blood cells were triple what they should be which showed they were fighting something,” she said.
By this time Lauren had also started to develop a chesty cough which got considerably worse between December and March.
“I was struggling to go into the office and work as the coughing made it hard to speak,” she said.
Lauren, who is also a model with Zebedee Talent, was given a chest x-ray but it came back all clear, so she was referred to a blood specialist for a CT scan and biopsy. The scan showed two glowing masses by her chest and right lung and the biopsy confirmed she had cancer.
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