 |  |  | | | | | Jon's battle with blood cancer | | | | |
| | At age 16 years and 11 months Jon went to the doctor because he was worried about some lumps he had discovered under his arms. Within two weeks he had seen his GP, had CT and MRI scans, had a biopsy and been given a diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma by his consultant.
"I asked the doctor to tell my parents about the lymphoma, then they told the rest of the family. I only told a couple of friends because I found it so hard to talk about it," remembers Jon, now 23.
Jon was treated on an adult ward with a combination of chemptherapy drugs designed for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Although he achieved a remission Jon experienced a relapse of his disease when he was 18 years old. The decision was taken to give Jon an autologous stem cell transplant at a hospital 70 miles from home.
Jon said, "The stem cell transplant was the worst part of my treatment. I was away from home and my girlfriend for a month and I was in a lot of pain but if I got through that, I can get through anything."
Jon had to retake his final GCSE year because he missed a year of school during his initial treatment. He also missed 5 months of sixth form studies during his relapse but he is now in the third year of a degree program at Newcastle. His motto for life is definately 'work hard, play harder'! |
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| | This is a recent snap of Jon, over four years after his stem cell transplant.
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