Sophie Lambert's Cancer Journey

 My cancer struggles and everything inbetween hasn’t been straightforward or linear. My first initial stage four Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis knocked me for six, but I was so poorly to get to that point that I was glad to finally have a diagnosis of some kind. It was lockdown and a very sad and frustrating time to find yourself in a medical setting. Isolation and loneliness at the front of my mind, I was catapulted into chemotherapy and spent one long month in hospital including a stay in intensive care. At only 23 years old, I felt too young to be facing mortality and I was scared. I underwent 6 long months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, finally getting the good news another 6 months after that. It didn’t slow down though, I find myself at the hospital a few times a month at the minimum. And having blood clots, infections and other challenges thrown my way. As a couple of years passed, it was clear I had been left with life long complications and late effects of the treatment and my tumour. I was adapting to this new life, taking things day by day. Sometimes only taking one step in front of another as I couldn’t see any further than that. In late 2023, I was diagnosed with a second primary cancer, thyroid cancer in which I had a full thyroidectomy and right sided neck dissection in February and radioactive iodine treatment followed in the April. I am still having ongoing treatment as 2 lymph nodes came back positive for cancer so due to go into hospital next week for more RAI.  Getting the dose of levothyroxine has been a struggle in my thyroid cancer journey, I’m on a very high dose for my weight because we need to keep the cancer under control but this on top of previous medical history causes a lot of issues and side effects. It’s been a challenging 5 years and with no sign of slowing down, just doing what I can to spread awareness and get my story out there to hopefully help others along the way. Sophie xx