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Love for Lily
Donation protected
Lily is a 20 year old, second year apprentice that has been recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.
At the peak of her life this has come as a huge shock. Lily will under go treatment though chemotherapy over the coming months and she will have extensive medical expenses and recovery cost throughout this time and any donations to help lily and her family throughout this time will be eternally grateful.
This is her story .....
I'm Lily, a second year hairdressing apprentice at Bespoke Hair Skin and Body in Maitland. I currently live at home with my amazing parents and incredible partner rob.
In early February this year I found a lump in my neck the size of a pea. After a couple of weeks of wondering I decided to see a doctor just in case I had anything to be concerned about. The result of that chat was that I had a swollen lymph node from a previous sinus infection and was told antibiotics would do the trick! After finishing them, the lump had not gone anywhere in fact it had gotten bigger!! So off I went back to the doctor and I was sent for an ultrasound thinking I may get an answer... wrong!! That doctor said the same thing so I went back to my original doctor and was given another round of antibiotics(fingers crossed)
After doing another round of the antibiotics I decided I needed to seek a second opinion because something didn't feel quite right about the findings.
so off I went for my second opinion and within moments she knew that I needed to have blood tests and biopsies and in fact there was no need for antibiotics.
Following my blood tests nothing showed as a concern, so off I went to the biopsy and it came back scar tissue but they couldn't tell anything without having a core biopsy. After the core biopsy I was told all they can find is scar tissue and that they needed to do further testing on the sample so I was told to come back in a week ( Longest week of my life).
That afternoon I received the call I was not expecting from my doctor to come in first thing the next day. Straight away I knew something was wrong. Every possible thought ran though my mind went in and was told that there were traces of Hodgkins lymphoma and that I needed to see a surgeon as soon as possible. So, before I knew it within 5 days I was seeing a surgeon and then 4 days later I had a lump cut out.
A week later I seen the surgeon and straight away she said it was Hodgkins lymphoma, cancer. It had gone from the size of a pea to the size of a chicken egg in just 12 weeks.
I was then referred to the haematologist and an oncologist. I was taken in for a pet scan and that came to show the cancer was in both sides of my neck, in chest and possibly lower abdomen. I'm now in the process of starting chemo after 12 weeks of trying to figure out what it was I am so happy but frightened on what the next part of my journey entails.
Whilst I have treatment playing on my mind I will also be unable to work for a minimum of 6 months and am unable to get any funding through this difficult time. So this makes this difficult time even more stressful to afford to survive along with paying extensive amount for my treatment. All assistance is beyond appreciated by myself and my family and we will be forever grateful xx
At the peak of her life this has come as a huge shock. Lily will under go treatment though chemotherapy over the coming months and she will have extensive medical expenses and recovery cost throughout this time and any donations to help lily and her family throughout this time will be eternally grateful.
This is her story .....
![](https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/30059208_15269670390_r.jpeg)
In early February this year I found a lump in my neck the size of a pea. After a couple of weeks of wondering I decided to see a doctor just in case I had anything to be concerned about. The result of that chat was that I had a swollen lymph node from a previous sinus infection and was told antibiotics would do the trick! After finishing them, the lump had not gone anywhere in fact it had gotten bigger!! So off I went back to the doctor and I was sent for an ultrasound thinking I may get an answer... wrong!! That doctor said the same thing so I went back to my original doctor and was given another round of antibiotics(fingers crossed)
After doing another round of the antibiotics I decided I needed to seek a second opinion because something didn't feel quite right about the findings.
so off I went for my second opinion and within moments she knew that I needed to have blood tests and biopsies and in fact there was no need for antibiotics.
Following my blood tests nothing showed as a concern, so off I went to the biopsy and it came back scar tissue but they couldn't tell anything without having a core biopsy. After the core biopsy I was told all they can find is scar tissue and that they needed to do further testing on the sample so I was told to come back in a week ( Longest week of my life).
That afternoon I received the call I was not expecting from my doctor to come in first thing the next day. Straight away I knew something was wrong. Every possible thought ran though my mind went in and was told that there were traces of Hodgkins lymphoma and that I needed to see a surgeon as soon as possible. So, before I knew it within 5 days I was seeing a surgeon and then 4 days later I had a lump cut out.
A week later I seen the surgeon and straight away she said it was Hodgkins lymphoma, cancer. It had gone from the size of a pea to the size of a chicken egg in just 12 weeks.
I was then referred to the haematologist and an oncologist. I was taken in for a pet scan and that came to show the cancer was in both sides of my neck, in chest and possibly lower abdomen. I'm now in the process of starting chemo after 12 weeks of trying to figure out what it was I am so happy but frightened on what the next part of my journey entails.
Whilst I have treatment playing on my mind I will also be unable to work for a minimum of 6 months and am unable to get any funding through this difficult time. So this makes this difficult time even more stressful to afford to survive along with paying extensive amount for my treatment. All assistance is beyond appreciated by myself and my family and we will be forever grateful xx
Organizer
Ali Gillon
Organizer
Pokolbin, NSW