A mother claimed doctors warned her that lumps on her neck could be parasitic worms from her two adopted “street cats” – before discovering they were blood cancer.
Francesca Knee-Wright, 34, from Brighton, first found a “very small” lump on her neck in April, but having only had a baby three months earlier, she assumed it was simply because her body was changing after pregnancy.
He said his GP told him over the phone that the pea-sized lump was “probably just a gland” and to call back in two weeks.
Ms Knee-Wright then began to notice she was losing a lot of weight, but put this down to doing “very well” in the gym.
But the mother-of-two was shocked when she discovered two more lumps on her neck a few weeks later and went to see her doctor in person.
Francesca Knee-Wright, 34, from Brighton, first found a “very small” lump on her neck in April, and was told it could be due to a virus she caught from her cats.
An ultrasound revealed a total of nine lumps in her neck and in August Ms Knee-Wright was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system.
Her GP reportedly suggested it could be a symptom of worms she could have contracted from her adopted stray cats – parasites that infect the large intestine.
However, an ultrasound revealed a total of nine lumps in her neck and in August Ms Knee-Wright was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system.
According to the NHS, it is “a relatively aggressive form of cancer that can spread rapidly through the body”, but it is also one of the “most treatable” forms of the disease.
Knee-Wright was told she was lucky to have found the lumps when they were still relatively small.
He now urges others to speak up for themselves when something doesn’t feel right.
Ms Knee-Wright said: “When I finally went back to the doctor after finding two more lumps, they called me in person and told me it could be a virus you can catch when you have cats.
‘The doctor asked me if I had a cat because sometimes people who have cats get worms, and I had two cats.
‘I adopted them from Spain. They are simple Spanish street cats. They have a lot of personality and cause a lot of chaos.
‘In the back of my head I thought ‘oh God, a lump means cancer.’ So in the back of my head I was thinking about cancer, but I was clinging to anything that might mean it’s something else, something less sinister.
‘So when they said that thing about cats I thought that might be it.
Knee-Wright is now worried about how her condition and hair loss could affect her three-year-old and eight-month-old children.
“I thought it might be a cyst, people always say it doesn’t have to be cancer, so I clung to any glimmer of hope, hoping it wasn’t that.
‘I went to the gym a lot, I had a baby and I thought my body was going through a lot of changes. It was hard for me to know what is normal with the baby.
‘I lost quite a bit of weight, but I didn’t know if it was because I had just had a baby and was breastfeeding or if I was doing really well in the gym.
‘I didn’t know that meant he was sick. You just think it could be anything, you don’t think it’s going to be cancer.’
Doctors reportedly told her it was “surprising” that she caught it so soon, as people with her condition tend to have “much larger lumps.”
Fran said: ‘If I hadn’t found another one I definitely would have forgotten about it. Life is busy and it was a very small bundle.
‘I’m so lucky I caught it when I did. Where would I be now if I had left it for a year?
‘My only frustration is that the system is the way it is. When you call the doctor to tell him or her that you found a lump, he or she should take care of you right away.
‘I don’t think he was nice enough to tell me it’s probably a gland and call me in two weeks.
‘It can be intimidating to question a doctor’s authority. I’m lucky that I’m the kind of person who says, “I think I need to see someone in person about this.”
‘You never know. I would hate for someone to be in the same situation as me and just forget about it. “I’m happy to speak up for myself and stand up for things that don’t feel right to me.”
She admitted she worries about how her condition and hair loss as she embarks on chemotherapy could affect her three-year-old and eight-month-old children.
Fran said: ‘I had to stop breastfeeding my baby much earlier than I intended. It completely changed the way I wanted to raise my children.
“They said my hair would fall out so suddenly and I was afraid my kids were going to hug me and a lock of my hair would fall out.”
Fran decided to “take back control” by shaving her hair before it fell out to raise funds for the Little Princess Trust, a charity that provides real hair wigs to children and young people with cancer.
She said: “As a mother, I can’t imagine what it would be like for my son to go through something like that, to lose all his hair and live life.”
On her fundraising page, Fran wrote: ‘Let’s be honest, I may be losing my hair, but I am NOT losing this fight. And while I have you, never ignore any lump… Not even the smallest ones in strange places.’