Where to start? I was diagnosed at 22 with CML, luckily I was diagnosed in a day, but I was never expecting after having a blood test to be told that I had cancer. It’s still, nearly 8 years on (my cancerversairy is the 19th January) a rather strange concept to process. I have always had my hair as I am treated and have always been treated with a pill form of chemotherapy which has it’s pluses and negatives. Chronic fatigue being one of them, and looking like nothing is wrong can be difficult at times.

I don’t quite know how to condense all my experiences, some brilliant and some awful that no patient regardless of age, sex or diagnosis should ever go through. Being ignored by a consultant when severely reacting to chemo is one example of a negative but then I have a positive of finally having a consultant that listens to me and talks to me, and I’m finally a part of my treatment. There are many wonderful things that have happened because of my diagnosis but then there is still anger about it not being fair and wanting my life back. Alongside parts of my treatment that should never have happened in terms of patient care, or rather, a lack of.

I am 29 and say I have a parallel me in a parallel life who is free and owns my life 100% whilst the me in this life doesn’t. I blog about it – recoveryfromcml.blogspot – as blogging is such a release.

I am an active patient to make things better for others and draw on my experience of the wrong way to be treated and the right to help implement change.

I am so grateful to the NHS in so many ways and also think there are areas that can be vastly improved.