“I was diagnosed with stage two/three Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, specifically the bulky subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). By the time I was diagnosed, the cancer had spread to other areas of my body.

There was a lump in my groin which prompted me to go to the doctor; I was in bed and just felt the lump. I had never heard of this type of cancer before, but as the lump was so big, I immediately booked an appointment the next morning.

My first appointment was booked straight away. I called at 8 a.m. and had an appointment by 11 a.m. the same day. There were approximately nine weeks between finding the lump and being diagnosed with cancer. It took longer than necessary, as I kept getting sent to different places and the wrong departments. In total, I had eight face-to-face appointments—this does not include my first GP appointment and another three in haematology.

There was also a huge delay in communication prior to my diagnosis. I initially saw a trainee doctor who called another doctor into the room. He noted that one of my lymph nodes was raised. I was told to come back in three weeks if the lump got any bigger. I queried this decision, as I was already concerned. Then I was sent for a chest X-ray, which I also pushed back on, but I was told it was standard procedure. I had to keep ringing the doctors until they eventually decided to take bloods. As the trainee doctor I saw was on holiday, I struggled to get the blood test results—it took a long time, and I had to be very persistent. At one stage, I tried to go private, but I couldn’t, and I have since changed doctors.

I had an appointment at the sarcoma unit, which confused me even more and made me mentally spiral. I felt like, at each appointment, the doctors didn’t know what was going on and were constantly trying to hand over my case. When I was diagnosed, I had to wait a long time to get my subtype. I was told it was between two, which, of course, I Googled. I asked the doctor to be honest about how bad it could potentially be, and he told me it was serious. It turned out, though, that the cancer was DLBCL, which was Non-Hodgkin—not as bad as the other subtype. At this point, I was planning my will. I always think that this process would have been even longer if I hadn’t chased it up.

Looking at symptoms, the main one was the lump. However, looking back, I had an appointment four months prior as I had a fever and was shivering. I was put on antibiotics, but in hindsight, I wonder if this could have been a symptom of cancer. At the time, I also had night sweats.

I felt awful during my diagnosis because of my personal life. I didn't tell my girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time, about everything for a while, and she thought I was cheating on her as I kept disappearing for appointments. Eventually, I had to sit her down and tell her. Generally, I feel okay discussing cancer, though I struggled more when I was going through it, as I hated repeating the word. I’ve got a big family who all live close, a good group of friends, and a supportive workplace. I was lucky to have good support networks. A lot of people have since told me they were thinking about me constantly but didn’t want to message me at the time and bombard me.

I hated seeing older people in the hospital because I knew they didn’t have the same support as me. The Lymphoma Action Facebook group was a helpful place, and I’m going to fundraise for them, as I recently found out that the office is only down the road from me. But I wanted to know where the money goes, as the nurses weren’t as supportive as I would have hoped at the start, they said they would help me through it, but they never even phoned me, and I didn’t see them.”