Caption: Fitness instructor went to the doctor with a pulled muscle in her neck – and it turned out to be stage four cancer
(Picture: Solent)
A fitness instructor who went to the doctor after she thought she’d pulled a muscle in her neck – but was later diagnosed with stage four cancer.
Lily Venus, 26, visited her GP complaining of neck pain, assuming she had just ‘tweaked’ it during one of her exercise classes.
But was left shocked when she discovered she had tumours in both sides of her neck, chest, and her lung.
Lily was later diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, and had to undergo gruelling rounds of chemotherapy.
Thankfully, she has now been in remission for 12 months, and is looking forward to rebuilding her life.
Lily said: ‘I am most looking forward to life, every little tiny bit of it and everything in between.’
Lily, from Winchester, visited her GP in November 2021 when a lump around her collarbone made her job teaching classes via Zoom difficult. But she put it down to her strenuous work, and getting a new puppy.
Lily taught six exercise classes a week via Zoom (Picture: Solent News & Photo Agency)
She said: ‘I was teaching about six exercise classes a week via Zoom.
‘I started experiencing this strange light-headedness, but I didn’t think much of it.
‘I also was incredibly fatigued. I would nap at least once a day, and waking up in the morning was difficult regardless of how much sleep I’d gotten.’
Then, Lily began noticing a pain in her neck, when travelling home from a mini-break with partner, Ryan.
‘The day we left, we drove to York to pick up our new puppy, and on the drive, I had an awkward feeling in my neck. It felt like I had slept funny.
‘My symptoms continued for the next week, but I still was under the impression that I was just exhausted due to the new puppy, and the neck pain was from tweaking my neck.
‘At the end of that week, I had a lump come up just above my collarbone. The discomfort was preventing me from being able to teach the upper-body parts of my exercise classes, so I booked a doctor’s appointment.’
Lily thought she fatigued (Picture: Solent News & Photo Agency)
Lily’s doctor told her she needed to go to A&E – which she thought was an ‘overreaction’. But two weeks later she was told she had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Lily began her treatment just before Christmas in 2021.
She said: ‘I was told that because of the chemotherapy, there was a slim chance I could lose my fertility. I was offered IVF, which would have delayed my treatment for about six months.
‘I found making this decision really tough. I talked to Ryan about it and he said: “Without you, there is no baby. It’s important we get you healthy as soon as possible”.
‘I am so grateful this is how he viewed it, because my cancer was already stage four and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is fast-growing. Who knows where I would be if I hadn’t started chemotherapy straight away.’
Lily had 12 rounds of chemotherapy over six months and was able to have a lower dose on her last eight sessions because of how well the cancer was responding to treatment.
Lily thought she’d ‘tweaked’ her neck (Picture: Solent News & Photo Agency)
She has now been in remission for 12 months, adding that she is ‘so grateful’ to her doctors for catching it quickly.
‘I feel like catching my cancer at the stage it was is one of the reasons I was able to achieve remission’, she said.
Lily has kept her fertility and is now looking forwaad to the future.
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‘I have always dreamt of being a mother, and not knowing if I would be able to achieve that title in my life has only made me long for it even more.”
‘During my treatment, I had to accept changes such as losing my hair, not being able to show up for people as I had been, and not being able to live my life as I had been.
‘After my treatment, I had to accept that I will never have that year again.
‘I now have lots of new allergies, and my heart and other organs will forever be weaker than they once were, but I am so grateful to be able to move onwards and upwards with a new appreciation for how wonderful life is.’
‘I have a new appreciation for how wonderful life is.’