Rebecca McDonald, 30, also suffered pain in her shoulder when she drank alcohol and noticed a lump on her neckA WOMAN diagnosed with stage 4 cancer says an “intense itch” in her leg was the first sign something was wrong.Arthur Carron - The Sun DublinThe 30-year-old, from Dundalk in Ireland, was referred for a blood test at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, CoAnd just one week beforehand, the appointment was cancelled.
“But nobody thought this is what it could be, probably because I was so young. I was in my early-20s and I had no other real symptoms.” Rebecca said: “Chemo left me exhausted. It was long days in hospital and then I got an allergic reaction to one of the drugs so I had to take antihistamines which would knock me for six and I couldn’t move out of the bed."I used to text my mam to guess how many times it would take to find one.“I remember the exact day it happened and I just told my mam, ‘It’s started’. It was about two weeks into chemo and from there it fell out every day.
"The most common symptom of Hodgkin lymphoma is a painless swelling in a lymph node, usually in the neck, armpit or groin."