Lauren Gill was drinking white wine while meeting friends after work when she felt a stabbing pain in her neck and shoulders.
“It started on the right side of my neck and quickly spread to the tips of my right fingers, like pins and needles,” says Lauren, 30, a podcast host from St Albans, Hertfordshire.
“I had spent a lot of time in the gym, so I assumed I had pulled a muscle.”
The pain went away after 20 minutes, so Lauren stayed for a couple more drinks and completely forgot about it.
But a week later he went to a bar to have a gin and tonic and the same thing happened again.
Lauren Gill, 30, discovered she had Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects infection-fighting white blood cells, after experiencing neck and shoulder pain from drinking alcohol.
“It was horrible: one second I was chatting to my friend and the next I was in complete agony,” Lauren says.
“This time I only had a couple of sips before I was left with severe tingling sensations all over the right side of my body, from my neck and shoulders to my hands, which continued for about 20 minutes and then mysteriously disappeared.”
Lauren continued to feel similar pains on the right side of her body whenever she took even a few sips of an alcoholic beverage.
“I still thought it was gym pain,” he says. In fact, the true cause was more sinister: Lauren had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects lymphocytes, the white blood cells that fight infection.
Cancer causes them to multiply faster than usual and then lodge in glands called lymph nodes, which are spread throughout the body, and become tumors. The first sign of Hodgkin lymphoma is usually swelling of the nodes in the neck, armpits, or groin, but some patients also develop a reaction to alcohol.
That’s what had happened in Lauren’s case, however she had no idea that her reaction was a sign of something serious. He simply started avoiding alcohol.
Then, on Christmas Eve 2018, a few months after her first reaction, Lauren went to visit a friend, who offered her a festive Baileys.
“I hadn’t drank for about six weeks and thought I’d try a small drink and see what happened,” Lauren says.
He took a sip and immediately felt intense pain in his right arm and shoulder. “It was the worst reaction I’d ever had,” he recalls.
‘I had only taken a small amount and my arm went numb. “It was really scary.”
The reaction was so severe that she went to her family doctor, who sent her for blood tests.
About one in 20 of those who experience symptoms related to Hodgkin lymphoma will experience alcohol-related symptoms.
Lauren was shocked to learn that their white blood cell levels “were triple what they should be, which showed that they were in overdrive and fighting something serious,” she says.
The severity was revealed in March 2019, when, after battling a cough so bad she could barely speak, Lauren was referred for a chest scan.
This revealed that he had two masses in the middle of his chest, next to his right lung.
A subsequent biopsy confirmed they were tumors, and doctors broke the news to Lauren that she had stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.
“I burst into tears, it was such a shock and unexpected,” Lauren says. ‘I was only 25 and I hadn’t even felt that bad, apart from the cough and the reaction to alcohol, and now they were telling me I had cancer. I felt completely numb.’
Every year in the UK, around 2,000 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and it is most common in people aged 15 to 35, says Dr Graham Collins, consultant haematologist and lymphoma lead at NHS Hospitals Foundation. from the University of Oxford.
Anyone who has had glandular fever and those with impaired immune systems, for example due to autoimmune disorders, are at slightly increased risk.
Cases are increasing, but while a lot of work has been done to determine why, “there are virtually no results,” Dr. Collins says. “We just don’t know.”
While tumors often occur in lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, and groin areas, they can also appear in lymph nodes in other parts of the body, such as the chest or abdomen.
Here, the glands cannot be palpated, but any tumor can cause symptoms if it presses on surrounding tissue or organs. Patients may experience shortness of breath, cough (like Lauren had), abdominal discomfort, or feeling full in the abdomen after meals, for example.
And about one in 20 of those affected will experience alcohol-related symptoms, says Dr. Collins.
One theory is that “when a lymph node is affected by lymphoma, the outer capsule stretches a little,” he adds.
“When you drink alcohol, the blood vessels in the body dilate and this could cause a greater and more sudden stretching of the capsule around the lymph node, causing pain.
“It can be a dull pain or even sharper, usually appearing 30 to 60 minutes after drinking alcohol,” says Dr. Collins. “It can appear anywhere there are lymph nodes, for example under the arms, in the neck or in the chest.”
Another symptom is weight loss and heavy sweating, says Dr. Collins. “Lymphoma cells that develop into lymphocytes can release chemicals called cytokines,” he says. “These can cause inflammation and fever and when the fever goes away, we sweat.”
Lauren says she didn’t drink much alcohol before her diagnosis and now only tends to drink on special occasions, opting to go to the gym instead of the bar.
Hodgkin lymphoma can be treated with intensive chemotherapy and sometimes also radiation therapy.
But, as with all cancers, the earlier it is detected, the better.
Sadly, around 500 people still die from lymphoma each year in the UK, of which around 300 will be under 25 years old.
After her diagnosis, Lauren was told she would need chemotherapy, but she delayed treatment for two weeks so she could freeze her eggs, as she was warned that anti-cancer drugs could harm her fertility.
He then received three months of intensive chemotherapy.
“It was really hard to deal with chemo when all my friends were still living their lives normally and having fun,” Lauren says.
‘When you are diagnosed with cancer you expect other people’s lives to stop too, but they continued while I was in a protected bubble in hospital receiving my treatment. “It was a really hard and scary time and my hair fell out, which was devastating.”
Lauren finished chemotherapy in July 2019. She had to have tests at the hospital every three months, but in May 2022 she was told she was officially in remission.
“I was very emotional when they gave me the go-ahead and I cried a lot of happy tears,” she says. “It was a huge relief.”
Now he has started a podcast, F The Noise, to share his cancer journey. “I want others to recognize that a strange reaction to alcohol could be an early symptom,” Lauren says.
“It took me a while to go to the doctor because I had no idea about this rare and subtle symptom, and at that point it had spread from my chest to my lungs.”
Many other people have contacted Lauren since she shared her story, “saying they had experienced the same thing.”
She says: ‘I didn’t drink much alcohol before and now I tend to drink only on special occasions. I go to the gym, instead of the bar.
‘The treatment has left my immune system slightly damaged, making me susceptible to infection. It means I’m more careful when entering crowded places and wear a mask on the tube.’
The experience has changed Lauren’s outlook on life. He now works for himself so he can take time off if he needs more rest and prioritizes his health.
“I don’t go 100 mph like I used to,” he says.
“Having cancer really forces you to set new priorities.”