I thought I was just an exhausted busy mum with tonsillitis – then I was told I may never see my kids again
EMMA Rosic was in what she considered to be normal health.
But when she started juggling work with parenting her little boy Frankie, she began to feel a bit more tired than usual.
The 32-year-old didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary until she experienced a range of other symptoms – including night sweats, itchy skin, weight loss and, most strangely, a swollen lymph node in her neck.
While doctors initially believed she was suffering from tonsillitis, Emma continued to battle ill health, culminating in her lung collapsing while out shopping for gifts for her son.
Finally, after six months of raising concerns to doctors, an X-ray revealed the truth: Emma had a large mass in her chest, which turned out to be lymphoma – a type of blood cancer.
“The diagnosis turned our lives upside down,” Emma, from Hampshire, said.
“Having a little boy and getting this kind of news is the hardest thing ever.
“As a parent, I was concerned how I would deal with it all and still parent my child – who was only four at the time.
“I didn’t know I had cancer for a long time while it was growing, with doctors unsure how long I had it before it was discovered.
“They told me it was stage two.
“At the beginning, I didn’t know if it was going to kill me or not.”
The terrifying journey came following increased fatigue when her son was two years old, with Emma juggling parenting with her job as an airfreight pricing executive.
In July 2022, her husband, Darran, found her unconscious in the bathroom, having collapsed with a temperature.
She was rushed to hospital, where she says she was told she had tonsillitis.
But over the following months, she had continuous chest infections and found prescribed antibiotics didn’t help.
Five months after first going to hospital, while shopping for Christmas presents, her condition worsened and she “felt her lung collapse”.
Findings from an X-ray in early January 2023 finally found the sinister cause of Emma’s health woes.
After the brutal discovery, she was fitted with a PICC line and began “intense” chemotherapy treatment.
Within two weeks, she had lost her hair.
Cancer has changed my life forever. I will never ever take life for granted again
Emma
Emma said: “I remember being told I was going to lose my hair, so I took control and cut my hair into a bob, so it wasn’t as hard.
“Cutting my hair into a bob broke my hair and I cried all night.
“Explaining losing my hair to my son was so hard as he was so young, but we told him this was the cancer leaving my body.
“His reaction was to say, ‘You look like daddy’, as my husband is bald.”
Emma struggled with chemotherapy, experiencing severe jaw pain and fatigue, as well as the prospective of never seeing her son again.
But luckily, the treatment worked and after eight weeks, Emma was officially in remission.
In June, she got to ring the bell to mark getting the “all-clear”.
She said: “Ringing the bell was the best feeling in the world.
“To hear the ding after battling the hardest battle – it told me it was officially over.”
The final scan took place later that month, confirming the positive results.
Emma said: “The impact this has had on my life is like no one could imagine.
“Every day I fear the cancer is going to return.
“Even with the three-month check-ups, in between those months I always worry and I believe I will worry for the rest of my life.
“I am one year into remission and, to many, a year feels like forever – for me it doesn’t.
“I had to go through counselling as I was struggling to come to terms with what happened and my new appearance.
“I kept saying I wish I was the girl before all this but that’s not the case.
“The person before all this had cancer, and the new me hasn’t – so I have learnt to love myself again.”
‘NEVER WASTE A DAY’
She added: “I still have days where I sit and look back through everything and cry.
“Without my husband Darran, six-year-old son Frankie, my mum and dad, and close friends, I wouldn’t have got through this and be where I am today.
“We knew it was going to be a fight but never realised how hard until it all started becoming more and more real.
“The amount of love and support from friends and family was absolutely incredible and they all helped me through my hardest battle.
“Cancer has changed my life forever. I will never ever take life for granted again.
“I will live every day to the fullest because I will never know what’s around the corner for me. I never want to waste a day.”
What are the signs of lymphoma?
LYMPHOMA is a term for cancer that starts in the lymph system - a network of vessels and glands that spans your body.
There are two main kinds of lymphoma – Hodgkin Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Lymphoma can cause many different symptoms, depending on which type of lymphoma it is and where it develops in the body.
The most typical signs are:
- Swollen lymph nodes, such as in the neck, armpit or groin area
- Night sweats
- Extreme tiredness
- Itching
- Unexplained weight loss
- Fever
- Excessive bleeding, such as nosebleeds, heavy periods and spots of blood under the skin
Other signs of lymphoma in a more localised area include:
- Swelling of the stomach, loss of appetite and other abdominal symptoms
- Coughing, shortness of breath, or chest pain