‘My NHS worker aunt saved my life after docs said I was just suffering from a cold’

Paris Wells, a 28-year-old beauty therapist who lives in Kent, says she went to A&E after feeling tired and noticing swelling in her neck but was misdiagnosed

Paris Wells says she was originally told her worrying symptoms were caused by a cold(mediadrumimages/@pariswells94)

A 28-year-old cancer survivor says her NHS aunt helped her get the correct diagnosis after doctors dismissed her Hodgkin Lymphoma symptoms as a common cold.

Paris Wells, a beauty therapist from Kent, tried to get a GP appointment after feeling tired and noticing swelling in her neck but all they had was a telephone appointment four days later.

Worried it was something serious, she took herself to A&E at the Princess Royal Hospital in Orpington, where, she says, doctors told her the symptoms were the result of a common cold.

But Paris’s aunt, who works in the hospital’s radiology department, refused to accept the diagnosis and organised for her niece to get a scan and later a biopsy.

The biopsy results revealed Paris had Hodgkin Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system drains fluid from the body and helps it fight infections and viruses.

Paris with her aunt who helped her get the correct diagnosis(mediadrumimages/@pariswells94)

During one of her chemotherapy treatments(mediadrumimages/@pariswells94)

Every year, roughly 2,100 people in the UK are diagnosed with the illness. It can develop at any age but mostly affects people between the ages of 20 and 40, as well as those aged over 75

Paris underwent gruelling treatment for her cancer which reached stage two at its worse, including eight rounds of chemotherapy and 17 rounds of radiotherapy, and officially entered remission at the end of last year.