I thought I was hungover from college parties — but it was blood cancer
Partying is serious business at a typical college campus, but for one student, the side effects of a night out were as serious as cancer.
A young British woman assumed her gnarly hangovers were normal, but soon discovered they were early signs of blood cancer. She has chronicled her courageous saga in a series of TikTok videos with thousands of views.
“It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Molly Hunt, 21, told Kennedy News of the surprise diagnosis. “I initially thought, ‘Am I going to die? Is my life completely changed forever?’ “
The Chesham, Buckinghamshire, native specifically suffered from Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, which plays a role in the body’s immune defense. Unlike most cancers that plague the old, this uncommon affliction tends to arise between the ages of 20 and 40.
Hunt’s ordeal began in October, during her second year of university, when she started experiencing severe stomachaches every time she went on a bender.
“I was going out and drinking quite a lot, and the day after I’d get a really bad pain in my tummy underneath my diaphragm,” the aspiring flight attendant described. “I felt like I had to contract to get the pain away and tense my whole body. It was quite a surreal pain.”
She added, “I just thought, ‘Oh this is new — my body must not be able to tolerate alcohol as much.’ ”
!["I thought I had really bad acid reflux too but it [lump] was pushing on my throat and making me burp a lot and making me feel like I need to burp -- that was quite a big thing," Hunt described.](https://gamestartup.netlify.app/host-https-nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/KNM_UNI_HANGOVER_WAS_CANCER_18.jpg)
Hunt also said she felt “extremely tired,” often napping in the middle of the day. “I couldn’t really focus on a lot of things as the tiredness was that bad,” she said, despite sleeping nearly 15 hours on some nights.
She soon became “scared” to go out with friends. “The tiredness would just hit me out of nowhere,” Hunt said. The geography student also attended fewer and fewer lectures due to a lack of energy, Kennedy reported.
Despite her alarming symptoms, Hunt thought her condition was merely a result of “overdoing” it.
“Sometimes I thought it was a hangover, and sometimes I put it down to the workload at uni,” explained the pupil, who grew more alarmed in February after seeing that her “neck [had] swelled up a bit.”
In a June TikTok clip, she said she sported “hard little lump on the top of my collarbone” which “was probably the size of two grapes put together.” The growth had also come with the sensation to “burp a lot,” which she initially mistook as acid reflux.
At that time Hunt also felt unusually “itchy” and “irritated,” and often felt a “burning sensation” beneath the skin.
That’s about the time that Hunt reported to a doctor, where they ran blood tests and diagnosed her with reactive lymph nodes. Unfortunately, the bump didn’t disappear within two weeks, so Hunt was placed on a two-week cancer referral and sent for an ultrasound. During that time, she sprouted a second lump.
When she went in for the ultrasound, medics declared that the lump was too big, and did a biopsy there and then.
What they discovered was “the scariest thing.”
“My biopsy must have broken up the cancer or something because I had loads more lumps on my neck,” Hunt said. “I had about six that I could feel, and it went to my chest and I started getting a really big lump on my chest.”
After an agonizing month of waiting for her results, Hunt said she finally received the bombshell news, delivered by her father. “I remember I was uncontrollably crying — it was like I was almost screaming. It was horrendous,” she recalled of the “vague” letter.
Her fears were confirmed in a scan nine days later, which revealed that she had Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma.
“I’m living in my nightmare,” lamented Hunt, who began chemotherapy on June 20. “It’s mentally been really hard because it’s the same every day — the fear of the unknown and what’s going to happen next.”
She continued, “It’s impacted my life greatly and made my heart hurt for my family.”
A breakthrough finally came after Hunt miraculously had a full metabolic response, sending the cancer into remission, according to Kennedy News. As a result, the patient’s 12 rounds of chemo have reportedly been reduced to just six — although she may have to undergo radiation therapy.
“I went into my third round of chemo in a more positive mindset, and I am excited for the future now,” said Hunt, who uploaded a TikTok video in July of her celebrating the milestone with her mother.
The college student hopes her ordeal made public will serve as a cautionary tale.
“My message would be: Nobody knows your body like yourself, and if you know that there’s something off, get it checked because it can definitely save your life,” said Hunt.
In an effort to spread awareness of the ailment, the survivor recently created a GoFundMe to raise money for Lymphoma Action, the UK’s only charity dedicated to the disease.
!["I thought I had really bad acid reflux too but it [lump] was pushing on my throat and making me burp a lot and making me feel like I need to burp -- that was quite a big thing," Hunt described.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/KNM_UNI_HANGOVER_WAS_CANCER_18.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024)
