Woman diagnosed with aggressive cancer after six months of back pain

She was diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma in April 2022

A woman who experienced six months of night sweats and back pain found out she had an aggressive cancer after repeatedly visiting the doctor.

Hannah Bird, 24, also lost weight, had rashes and continuous coughing, and experienced back and chest pain.

Bird told SWNS she “went to the doctor three to four times a week” and was dismissed repeatedly before she was eventually given an x-ray and CT scan. The following day she was told she had cancer, on 1 April 2022.

Hannah said: "The tumour was in my left lung - it took up three-quarters of my lung.

"We found out I was stage four. I was so relieved that they found out what was wrong with me."

Originally doctors thought that she was suffering from lung cancer. They then did a biopsy and three weeks later she was diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma – the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Bird was accepted onto a clinical trial where she was given immunotherapy and a non-chemo-invasive drug.

Unlike chemotherapy, the drug is less invasive, and works by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells.

The 24-year-old experienced night sweats and back pain for six months (SWNS)

She said: "At my halfway scan my tumour had shrunk by 80 per cent.

“By September 2022, I had finished chemotherapy all the cancer was gone which was not normal.

“I am the only person in the UK to have all of their non-Hodgkin’s cancer gone with chemotherapy alone,” she told the news agency.

Bird is now cancer free. But she has urged people to seek a second opinion if they are not satisfied with a doctor’s diagnosis.

Advising others who are worried about symptoms of cancer, she said: "Get a second opinion, I went to the same doctor every single time, I think if I had gone to a different doctor I would have been diagnosed a lot sooner.

“I went to the doctor three to four times a week - I was so desperate.

“If you think that something is wrong, request a referral or second opinion by another doctor.”

Additional reporting from SWNS.