What doctors thought was long Covid, turned into something much worse for then 15-year-old Chloe...

Chloe said...

I was only 15 when I first got ill. At the time, the doctors thought it was long Covid, but nothing seemed to help. Eventually, they found I had a flow heart murmur, which turned out to be because I didn’t have enough blood in my body. That led to a trip to A&E and a whole load of tests to figure out what was going on.

They ruled out a bunch of things, but then, at the start of May, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a type of blood cancer.

It was right in the middle of my GCSEs. Honestly, I barely remember any of it. I was really unwell; I had no working white blood cells and kept picking up infections. The only thing I clearly remember is my consultant telling me the diagnosis, and then me messaging my friends and school to let them know.

You never think it’s going to happen to you. But sometimes, it does.

Chloe's treatment

There’s a set treatment plan for leukaemia – it lasts just over two years. The first six months are really intense chemotherapy with lots of different drugs. Leukaemia can adapt, kind of like how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, so they have to keep switching things up. After that, there’s 18 months of maintenance treatment which included daily chemo tablets and regular IV injections.

Because leukaemia is caused by faulty white blood cells, the treatment keeps your white cell count really low. That meant I was super vulnerable to infections. I didn’t want to be stuck at home the whole time – especially after already spending two years in lockdown – but going out came with risks.

I ended up with some pretty bad infections. I had pneumonia, and once I got a big infection around my eye from what started as just a spot. For most teenagers, it would’ve been nothing, but for me, it turned into something serious, and I needed surgery to treat it.

People often think cancer treatment just makes you feel sick, but there’s so much more to it. Yes, the chemo makes you feel awful, but then you’re also dealing with multiple colds or infections at once, and your body just can’t fight them off.

I had all my treatment at Bristol Children’s Hospital, and honestly, one of the best parts of my day was seeing the teachers there. It made things feel a bit more normal.

Peer support

The mental side of things is tough too. That’s why I got involved in a peer support group for young people with cancer. It’s been amazing. We’ve done some really fun stuff; glass blowing Christmas baubles, visiting Wake the Tiger, crazy golf and pizza nights. A few months ago, we even made our own silver jewellery, and we recently had a makeup session that made me feel like a normal teenage girl again.

There’s this unspoken bond between us. Some are still in treatment, some have finished, but we all just get it. You can make a joke or mention a treatment acronym, and everyone knows exactly what you mean. You don’t have to explain yourself.

Even though I finished treatment about a year and a half ago, I still go to the support sessions. It’s been so helpful, especially meeting others who are now at uni like me. I learned about how grade requirements can be different because of treatment, which was really useful.

While my friends were stressing about GCSEs, I was making decisions about life-saving treatment. It’s a lot to take on. At 16, I was signing my own paperwork for clinical trials, making decisions that could ultimately change my life.

It’s hard to put into words how grateful I am to the staff who looked after me. It’s the little things that meant the most, like how they always remembered my soft toy mole, Charlie.

They’d ask what he’d been up to, and it made it easier to talk about how I was feeling. When I finished treatment, I even made a little tuxedo for Charlie, and the nurses took photos with him. It was such a special moment.

A year after finishing treatment, I did the Big Bristol Walk with my dad. It was on the exact day I’d finished treatment the year before! As soon as I saw it online, I knew I had to do it. It felt like the perfect way to mark how far I’d come.

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