Four years ago, I was diagnosed with Stage 4B diffuse large b-cell lymphoma – an aggressive form of blood cancer that had spread from a large tumour in my chest to my liver, bone marrow and one of my kidneys before the doctors could work out what was wrong.

In the nearly six months I spent in the hospital receiving chemotherapy, I was always the youngest patient on the haematology ward. The average age of someone with my type of cancer is 71; at that age, you’ve probably had a family, had a career, and are settled into retirement. As I was in my 30s, my career was relatively newly established, I’d been married for a year, and my daughter was six weeks old. Most of my medical team remarked at what an “unusual case” I was, but they didn’t know anyone else in my situation, and there were no charities that specifically supported someone my age. 

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Tags: Clore Social Fellows; Clore Social Leadership Programme; Health and well-being; Leadership.