Fit and healthy newlywed nurse diagnosed with deadly cancer at just 26 – years after losing mum to the disease
WHEN Julia Cullen returned from her honeymoon, she was looking forward to starting the rest of her life with her new husband. But just weeks later, the intensive care nurse was delivered a devastating blow when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer – at just 26. The newlywed, from Hartlepool, Teesside, had […]
WHEN Julia Cullen returned from her honeymoon, she was looking forward to starting the rest of her life with her new husband.
But just weeks later, the intensive care nurse was delivered a devastating blow when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer – at just 26.
The newlywed, from Hartlepool, Teesside, had still been coming to terms with losing her mum Cath to the disease a few years earlier.
The 61-year-old, also a nurse, had battled bowel cancer with liver metastasis before she died in May 2016.
Speaking from her hospital bed while undergoing the latest in a series of blood transfusions, Julia told The Sun Online: “My family had already lost our wonderful mother to cancer two years ago and now here I am at 26 diagnosed with cancer.
“I’ve lost my hair, I’m unable to work, I’m unable to exercise, I’ve lost what was my life in a way.”
Devastating diagnosis
After getting into shape for her wedding in September, Julia was the fittest she had ever been before her mysterious symptoms started just weeks later.
Following their honeymoon, she began struggled in gym classes and put her exhaustion down to working 60-hour weeks at North Tees hospital in Hartlepool.
Julia said: “I realised something was wrong when I couldn’t climb the stairs without getting out of breath.
“I’d managed to get an appointment at my GP who took my blood but said she thought it was tension headaches.
“I got a call just hours later saying I needed to go straight to hospital.”
Julia was admitted to a ward straight away, where doctors dropped the bombshell about her low white blood cell count.
She said: “Having worked on a haematology ward before I knew what was wrong with me before the words came out of his mouth.
“My sister held my hand as she knew too. And we both started crying.”
Julia was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia – a blood cancer rare in adults and mainly found in children.
‘Heartbroken’
She said: “I’m heartbroken that we’re going though things that we never thought we would when we got married.
“But Peter has been amazing. He supports me more than anyone and I don’t know how I’d do this without him.
“I know that together we can face anything thrown at us.
“I’m frustrated that this is how our first year of marriage has happened.
“But it makes us cherish the time we have together and love each other deeper than we knew we could.”
What is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia?
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a type of blood cancer that starts from young white blood cells called lymphocytes in the bone marrow.
Adults and children can get it but it is most often diagnosed in younger people.
It’s very rare, with around 650 people diagnosed with the condition each year in the UK.
Many symptoms of ALL are vague and non specific. It may feel like the flu as symptoms are caused by too many abnormal white blood cells and not enough normal white cells, red cells and platelets.
Symptoms can include:
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Bruising or bleeding easily
- Frequent infections
- General weakness
- Weight loss
- Joint pain
- Breathlessness
- Pale skin
- Swollen glands
It is a genetic change in the stem cells that causes immature white blood cells to be released into the bloodstream.
However, it’s not clear what causes the DNA mutation to occur.
The main treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is chemotherapy, and usually steroids as well.
Treatment with a targeted cancer drug might also be used as well. Some people will need a stem cell transplant.
The outlook for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia isn’t as promising as in children.
Around 40 per cent of people aged between 25 and 64 will live for five years or more after receiving their diagnosis.
In those aged 65 or over, around 15 per cent will live for five years or more after being diagnosed.
Source: Cancer Research UK
She is currently undergoing six months of chemotherapy to wipe out her blood cells – causing Julia to lose her blonde locks.
Peter shaved off her hair with his dad’s clippers at their home and recorded time-lapse footage.
Julia said: “I was really anxious about shaving my head because it would be an outward sign that I was poorly.
“I was worried that people would stare at me in Aldi and wonder or pity.
“And I was worried that I would look awful and not want to leave the house.
“I’d lose one of the things that kept me going and felt normal.
“But I just had to face it and remember that no-one loves me because I have nice hair.”
She is now halfway through her chemo regime but won’t know until August what impact treatment has made.
Julia said: “I’ve always tried to stay positive about what’s happening to me.
“I’ve learned that you can’t control what’s going to happen to you in life but you can control your attitude towards it.
“It’s so important not to sweat the little things in life and realise how wonderful ordinary life is.
“People get angry because of traffic jams, someone parking wonky or because they’ve gained 4lbs at slimming club.
“They let these things impact their life when really these things are nothing.
MORE ON CANCER
“Life’s little inconveniences shouldn’t be what makes or breaks our day.
“I’d give anything to go back to my extraordinary-yet-ordinary life. I miss it every day.”
Julia’s workmates at North Tees hospital are fundraising for Leukaemia UK – you can donate here.
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