Abby Maxwell’s blood cancer symptoms, such as sudden weight loss and vomiting, were initially dismissed by multiple doctors, until the young woman was finally diagnosed
A young woman was diagnosed with blood cancer after her symptoms were brushed off as anxiety and a GP told her: “You look healthy, so you must be fine”.
Abby Maxwell was repeatedly reassured by doctors that nothing was amiss despite shedding six stone in less than a year and experiencing regular bouts of sickness and nausea. The student attended her local GP surgery four times between February and July 2022, but her doctor attributed her symptoms to anxiety.
However, Abby, who was 22 at the time, instinctively knew something more sinister was happening due to her dramatic weight loss and continued demanding answers despite being persistently dismissed. Abby, from Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, said: “I remember going in on one appointment and the GP said, ‘You look healthy, so you must be fine’.
“At that point, I was being sick a lot. It was pretty much daily. And I’d lost a substantial amount of weight — around six stone — in a very short time. So, I knew something was wrong.”
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Abby, who is now 25, continued: “I’d been previously diagnosed with anxiety, so the GP linked the nausea and sickness with that, even though I said I wasn’t feeling any particular increase in anxiety when I was being sick. When I was dismissed by multiple GPs, it made me feel belittled, discouraged and frustrated.
“I knew I was ill, and I knew that the symptoms I had weren’t normal, but they made me question my own thoughts and feelings to the point that I disregarded the first physical sign of cancer for months before going back to them.
“I went to the GP in February 2022 and that’s when they said my folic acid was low so they put me on tablets. I went back again a few times and then in July 2022 the doctor said I looked healthy so I was fine. Looking back I can laugh but it was ridiculous. I was being sick quite a lot and she had put that down to my anxiety.
“She said it was causing the nausea and sickness, and I explained that I wasn’t feeling anxious during these sickness bouts. I think she just saw that in my notes and used that to explain it.
“I probably went three or four times from February to July. I knew there was something wrong with me but I thought I was being disregarded, so what’s the point of doing that again.”
She eventually sought medical attention again in December 2022 after noticing a lump under her arm and was referred for an ultrasound.
During the ultrasound appointment, a biopsy was taken and doctors expressed their suspicion that she might have lymphoma. After losing nearly half her body weight, dropping from 13 stone to 7 stone within months, Abby was finally diagnosed with high-grade non- Hodgkin lymphoma in January 2023.
She confessed: “I had no inkling [of cancer]. I knew there was something wrong, but never in a million years did I think it was cancer. When I was told it was most likely lymphoma, I just started crying and wanted to leave immediately. I just needed to go home and be away from there.”
Following her diagnosis, she underwent six rounds of chemotherapy at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, where she praised her care as “exceptional”.
Abby expressed: “I actually felt vindicated that I wasn’t making it all up. And it was almost a relief, as I could now process what was coming.”
Now two-and-a-half-years free from cancer, Abby, who is currently training to be a complementary therapist, is keen to raise awareness about cancer in young people.
She wants to emphasise that “cancer doesn’t end when you get the all-clear” and underscore the importance of young people receiving support following their treatment.
She continued: “There’s all kinds of long-term effects from treatment like chronic fatigue and fertility issues. And with my joints and my bones, I feel like I can’t move the same way that I used to.
“There are the psychological effects after treatment ends, too, because you’re coming to terms with what’s just happened to you, and for me, the physical changes I had.
“I’d gained a lot of weight at the time because of the steroids I’d been on for treatment and I had no hair, so I was very self-conscious for a good whilst. There needs to be a certain level of compassion for young people that have been through cancer.”
Ashley Ball-Gamble, CEO of The Children & Young People’s Cancer Association, expressed: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to Abby for sharing her story, which highlights why we’re working to support healthcare professionals by educating them on cancer in young people to improve diagnosis times.
“The earlier a diagnosis is made, the better chance there is that treatment will not only be effective but will come with fewer short- and long-term side effects.”
