This is a personal story around a serious diagnosis, treatment, transplant and my following recovery story. My story begins in 2008. While working, I became dizzy and suddenly collapsed. I had suffered with fatigue earlier, but until now I had ignored it.
I was sent via an ambulance to Rotorua Hospital where a CT scan was done and was quickly diagnosed with cancer known as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma or Hodgkin’s disease. This presented itself as a large mass in the upper part of my chest behind the breastbone, compressing blood vessels in that region. The compressed blood vessels prevented vital blood and oxygen getting to my brain, so standing upright had become impossible. I was then taken through to the Hamilton hospital for a biopsy and further tests and was treated with chemotherapy immediately to try and shrink the tumour enough to ease the compression from my veins. Find the full story in the main article.