My experience volunteering as a school speaker with Young Lives vs Cancer

I recently started volunteering as a school speaker with Young Lives vs Cancer. This role means a lot to me as I am a childhood cancer survivor and I know just how scary and life altering a cancer diagnosis is, especially as a young person. There is often confusion, fear and uncertainty and life is put on hold as treatment begins and the young person is launched into a world where hospital becomes a second home.  

I was diagnosed with cancer – a Rhabdomyosarcoma in my left eye – when I was 8 years old. After 10 months of chemotherapy and two months of radiation treatment, I got to ring that bell and have been cancer free ever since. 

However, cancer is a very scary and stressful thing to go through, not only physically but mentally too. It takes a toll on your mind and even after the cancer disappeared, that fear that I had been feeling did not. I felt out of control, as if I couldn’t trust my body anymore.  

Throughout the following years, despite clear scans, that sense of no control grew stronger. This, combined with many other factors, created a perfect storm and led to me developing a severe eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, when I was 12 years old. I spent years in and out of hospital again, except this time the illness wasn’t physical; it was mental. 

It’s been a long and difficult journey but I am now in the best place I have ever been.  I am turning 20 this year and I am so grateful for the medical treatment I received and the amazing people around me who helped me get to this point.

It makes me emotional thinking about it because I remember being so young and facing a life threatening disease and not knowing what the future held. I wish I could go back and give that version of me a hug. 

I wanted to start volunteering with Young Lives vs Cancer because I want to use my experience to raise awareness of the effects of cancer, including the mental challenges many face even well after remission. I want to be the person that little me needed when she was lost and confused and didn’t understand why she was feeling this way. I’ve always found that even just being able to relate to someone makes you feel less alone and that can be one of the most powerful things, especially because having cancer at a young age is very confusing and scary. Even just knowing that you aren’t the only one who has felt this way can mean so much to someone. 

If anyone reading this can relate to my story or is feeling lost, scared and unsure of the future then I want you to know that you are not alone. Please talk to those around you and be honest about how you’re feeling because you don’t have to cope with it all on your own.  

I am so grateful to be a part of this wonderful charity, and I am excited for whatever my volunteering future holds.

 Being a Young Lives vs Cancer volunteer means the world to me, and I hope that throughout my volunteer journey I can contribute to the positive impact that this charity has on so many people throughout the UK.