Patient stories

“She took me into the room and she sat me down with a haematologist. And they said, ‘Yep. You’ve got cancer. It’s a blood cancer.’”

“When they said that he had blood cancer, I just broke down. The very first thing that ran through my mind was… my son is going to die.”

“See, it’s funny with blood cancer…you always find an explanation for your symptoms. You never think it’s blood cancer, you think it’s something else.” 

“It’s taught our family so many things. We’re all in this together.” 

“Sometimes even now, I think in the shower – ‘Today, am I going to find a bump that shouldn’t be there?'"

‘What’s your life expectancy now Mum?’ And I said, ‘Same as yours Lucy. Exactly the same as yours.’

“I remember these nurses with purple gowns holding a bucket labelled ‘TOXIC’, to give chemo to Liem. I was like, ‘What is going on? Chemo, for my boy?'”

“The doctor said, ‘This might hurt, yell if you wish’, and my wife Janet said my language was very colourful!”

“Hearing that I had Hodgkin lymphoma was emotional. I was glad that I was in Auckland and could distract myself.”

“I was born on the 4th of July - I couldn’t be more independent, if I tried.”

“I was like, ‘Excuse me? Is this a life-threatening disease?’ And the doctor said, ‘Yes, potentially.'”

“It raises your empathy, it raises your understanding, and it raises your care factor.” 

“Come on, guys. I’m fighting for my life here, and you’re asking me when I’m gonna die?” 

What could she have done differently? What if her doctor had caught it sooner? “But, those types of questions are unhelpful to ask yourself after you’ve already been diagnosed.”