I was too young to be a one-in-three statistic

IMAGINE being told you are that one in three statistic who has cancer. Now imagine being told you are that one in three statistic who has cancer at the age of 21. I am Laura Jayne Brown, I live in Lichfield and in January 2010 I was told I had cancer.

Up until Christmas last year I was in my final year at Staffordshire University studying Broadcast Journalism. My goal and future ambition is to become a TV or Radio presenter and I have always wanted to achieve this dream ever since I was little.

I was your normal average girl working hard towards my degree and looking forward to my graduation in July, blissfully unaware what was happening inside my body. It wasn’t until December last year when I found a lump in my neck and knew there was something wrong, but like many other young people I really didn’t assume the worse. In my case I thought it was down to stress and too much hard work at university, how very wrong I was.

It was after a trip to the Doctor, who then referred me to a surgeon when my world came crashing down. Following an operation to remove the lump from my neck I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Almost three hundred thousand people are diagnosed with cancer each year with nearly two thousand being teenagers and young people. In other words out of every one hundred thousand people in the UK, slightly more than two people will get Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Hodgkin Lymphoma is cancer of the lymphatic system and affects your immune system. In simple terms, it stops your body from fighting infections properly. Cancer cells are made instead of normal cells, so instead of making normal cells to fight infections, the body makes cancerous ones. You cannot catch Hodgkin Lymphoma from someone and you cannot pass it so someone else. There is also nothing to say that anything you have done or not done has caused you to develop the illness. It is not your fault and of course this is the first thing that came into my head when I was told, what did I do wrong?

Over the next few months as I battle with cancer I will share with you all the new and different experiences that I have had to endure on my road to recovery.