I was 30 years old and living my best life until a terrifying email from the Australian immigration office led to a sinister discovery that changed everything.

Rachael Murphy was 30 years old when a sinister email from the Australian immigration department turned her life upside down.

‘You failed the chest x-ray. Immigration wants you to go see a specialist,” reads the forceful email, dated May 2022.

The marketing executive was afraid, not because of her health, but because she feared she would not be able to stay in Australia.

Born and raised in the United Kingdom, the young woman moved to Australia in 2015, fell in love and planned to stay.

I had completed the routine health checks that are part of the application process without a second thought. After all, she was young and healthy.

In reality, he was simply ignoring the symptoms of the illness that threatened to derail his life and his dreams.

“I was more focused on what that meant for the visa than on my health,” Rachael told FEMAIL.

‘I had no idea what it could be. I had waited so long to apply for residency that I didn’t want anything to stand in my way.’

Rachael eventually saw several doctors and was diagnosed with stage 2A Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare cancer of the lymphatic system.

Looking back, he realized he had missed vital clues that he had the disease: unexplained fatigue, cough and loss of appetite.

‘I remember my chest was bad, but I have asthma and it fluctuates. I thought everything would take care of itself,” she said.

‘I was also very tired, much more than usual. I honestly thought he was just having a lot of long days and needed some iron pills or to eat better.

‘Another common symptom is loss of appetite and, looking back, I wasn’t eating much at the time. But I’m not a big eater in general, so I didn’t notice that either.

Before the diagnosis, Rachael revealed that she was plagued with uncertainty.

“I was supposed to return home to the UK a few weeks after receiving the email from immigration,” he said.

“I had to call my parents and tell them I wasn’t coming back because they didn’t give me a chest x-ray.”

Rachael’s doctor was immediately concerned and sent her for a CT scan.

‘My GP was very honest when he told me I couldn’t fly anywhere. “I think he suspected it was cancer,” he said.

“He told me I had to make my health a priority and forget about everything else until everything was resolved.”

That’s when Rachael realized she was dealing with something serious.

‘They did a biopsy and removed a lymph node. After that, I had a PET scan and was officially diagnosed.’

However, the words “Hodgkin’s lymphoma” kept appearing from the CT scan and the doctors said they were only running tests to confirm what they suspected.

Rachael said she didn’t want to believe it at first because she was only 30 years old and healthy in every way.

‘It wasn’t until after I looked up the disease online that I realized I had many of the symptoms.

“But it was still a big shock because I have no history of cancer in my family and I never expected it to happen to me at 30. It was so overwhelming and discouraging.”

Rachael made the difficult decision to receive treatment in Australia, away from her family.

‘First of all, I went through a round of IVF and froze my eggs. Chemo affects your fertility and I couldn’t imagine not having children in the future.

“After that, I went through 15 weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.”

Rachael revealed that chemotherapy was hard on her body during the first round and she ended up in the emergency room twice, including a five-night hospital stay.

‘I couldn’t eat, I had terrible nausea and a burning sensation in my mouth. I felt like my saliva was acidic and burning.’

Because her reaction to the chemotherapy was unusual, her hematologist gave her a white blood cell injection to control her symptoms and she was able to continue a somewhat normal routine.

While his body did not behave well at first, the rest of his treatment went relatively well.

Rachael’s partner Mick was her rock throughout the whole ordeal. She said she wouldn’t have made it through treatment without him and her friends who supported her.

‘I’m not normally an anxious person, but I went through a lot after I was diagnosed. I had frequent panic attacks.

‘All my hair fell out. I never realized how much of a part of my identity it was. It was difficult for me to leave the house if I didn’t have the wig on.

“I would look in the mirror and not recognize myself at all.”

Still, Rachael did everything she could to preserve a sense of normalcy. She tattooed her eyebrows and devised a ritual to calm herself whenever she felt overwhelmed.

He went for walks with Mick whenever his mind raced, even in the middle of the night. He was also prescribed anti-anxiety medication.

Almost four months after starting chemotherapy, Rachael had another PET scan to see if the treatment had worked.

His doctors were happy with the results and revealed that there were no traces of cancer in the scans.

Rachael had to have blood tests again every three months during her first year and was officially declared to be in remission.

Despite that, your anxiety often appears at unexpected times.

‘Sometimes I started to worry that the cancer had returned. Many little things used to plant a seed of doubt in my head.

‘I am very grateful that Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most curable cancers. My doctor recently told me there was a 90 percent chance the cancer would never come back, and sometimes I have to sit with that number. Is incredible.’

Rachael shares her story as the face of Australian Cancer Research Foundation 2km a day challenge in May, to raise funds for cancer research.

He said it is important to raise awareness about the disease and support organizations that support cancer research.

The ACRF helped with initial funding for Professor Ian Frazer and virologist Jian Zhou, who invented the cervical cancer vaccine.