Mollie's cancer fund

*RAISING FUNDS FOR* I am making this fundraiser for a multitude of expenses (travel, food, care etc), because I will be out of work for the foreseeable with 0 income. I didn’t have any savings after coming back from Galápagos as the last penny to my name was spent on getting out there and back!  And of course, many people will know, my hair has always been my thing - my identity - and having to lose it all, is breaking my heart beyond belief and one of the most terrifying things in this whole journey, therefore I am also trying to get a very realistic high-quality wig to look exactly like my normal self. *STORY SO FAR* (Summary: I have been diagnosed in the last 3 weeks with a type of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (blood cancer), at stage 4, it is looking treatable but a very aggressive form so it's going to be a long battle. The disease is specifically called PMDLBCL. When it was found I was literally hours away from death and the tumour stopping my heart. This tumour grew from nothing to 14cm in 2 months. I was in complete health before this. ) I have honestly no idea how to say this and never in a million years thought I would ever have to, so I am just going to let it flow so it’s as natural as possible, I want to be as open and transparent as possible, in situations like this I feel it is the only way to be and there is no point in sugar coating it. As some will know, on February 4th I arrived back in the UK from the Galapagos islands, Ecuador, after spending 9 months out there as I had an itch I couldn’t scratch. I left behind a whole life in England and just left. I have had the best time I could ever have imagined and have 0 regrets. However, for the last couple of months out there, I have been experiencing some bad health symptoms. Painful breathing, trouble swallowing, achy and itchy body, constant exhaustion and finally 2 weeks ago a shocking rash all over my lower body. On the last day in Galapagos, I nearly drowned snorkelling I couldn’t catch any air, and thought I was just unfit! I spent money on private doctors on the islands, only to be told my symptoms were down to a mixture of stress, tension and a small bed. Since arriving back Sunday night I felt pretty ill, but I put it down to jet lag and the 35-hour plane journey. However less than 48 hours later, my whole life was shattered. I collapsed in the supermarket, turned blue, was sick and continued to collapse every 30 minutes around ten times over after arriving at the hospital until I was stabilised with drips. They took my blood which were all very unstable, asked me about any recent symptoms, and did an x-ray of my chest. I told them that wouldn’t be necessary as I had had one done 2 months ago in Galapagos and it was normal, but they did it anyway. Thank the lord. They told me the x ray two months ago was clear, but it certainly wasn’t anymore and then sent me for an emergency CT scan. A couple of hours later in the middle of the night, the results came back after being interpreted in Australia. Doctors came into my room at 3am and told me they had some seriously difficult news to share with me and asked if me and my family were prepared. I have an extremely large 14cm by 6cm tumour engulfing my entire heart and lungs, that was cancer, a type of lymphoma, an aggressive form of blood cancer. I was asked if I had any questions. The only thing I could ask is if I was going to die and the doctor told me he can’t say yes or no. I am not going to even describe the feeling of being told news like this, but all I can say is, I thought that was it for me. I screamed and screamed about how I had so many plans. I had achieved so much already at 24 but I wasn’t done yet and I wanted to have a family and babies and wasn’t ready to die at 24. I didn’t sleep for 40 hours after this whilst awaiting multiple more tests and for them to conduct a biopsy on a smaller tumour they had also found under my armpit, which was a traumatic experience to say the least. Turns out the reason I had been collapsing over and over is that the tumour had got so big it was pressing against the tube leading blood to my heart, so I was effectively having heart attacks over and over. And no wonder I had felt so ill for the past two months in Galapagos, I had a fast growing tumour engulfing my heart and lungs. I was planning on going back to the Galapagos in a month’s time and maybe even starting a life out there for good. I wasn’t sure if I believed in fate or the universe until this. I was originally due to stay in Galapagos until May, but I felt something drawing me back to the UK, I can’t put my finger on what it was, I just felt I needed to come. If I had stayed until May the tumour would likely have engulfed my heart and I’d have died. If I had booked my flight a day later, I might have started collapsing on the plane and again, maybe died. I have never felt luckier. I don’t know why this has happened to me or what lesson I am trying to be taught but I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and some good comes out of everything. Maybe I am meant to be in the UK and it’s telling me this is where my home is and where my family and friends are, but something drew me back to the UK when it did, a large pull, and thank God it did because it saved my life. If anything, positive has already come out of this, it is the realisation of what is important in life. I never knew how quickly someone’s perspective on life could change until receiving news like this. I have THE purest souls as my best friends, I have been bombarded with love and people travelling from all over the UK, and even people booking plane tickets from other countries just to come and cheer me up. They have put their whole lives on hold to be with me, dropped work, and brought me my favourite things that I didn’t even know they knew were my favourite things and I couldn’t feel more loved or grateful. I told the doctors to just kill me if it was bad news as I couldn’t go through the fear of not knowing if I would live or die but having my friends and family by my side is the only thing that made me feel like I could fight the fear. I can’t describe my utter love for you all, you are all angels on earth and the ONLY thing getting me through this. I have been moved to the young cancer patient unit in Leeds and will be here for the foreseeable. Update- today I have had the official diagnosis. It is not exactly what we had hoped for, however not terrible! I am fighting a type of Non- Hodgkin's lymphoma called 'Primary mediastinal diffuse Large B lymphoma'. Rarer and more aggressive, but still treatable! There is sadly no time to harvest my eggs as we need to begin treatment ASAP before the steroids stop keeping the tumour at bay but it doesn’t mean complete infertility❤️ There is hope ❤️ Thankyou so much for reading :)