A teenage cancer survivor inadvertently learned of her devastating diagnosis from a radiologist who cried during a scan.
Molly Cuddihy, then 15, was told that same day that she had a rare form of bone cancer.
Doctors rushed the 21-year-old to start chemotherapy the following week.
Recalling her diagnosis, Miss Cuddihy, from Inverclyde, Scotland, said: “The woman who was doing the scan on me started crying.
“If that wasn’t a telltale sign, then I don’t know what was.”
Molly Cuddihy, 21, didn’t realize how sick she was until her radiologist started crying mid-scan while looking at the results.
The maths student, pictured with Gary Barlow at a Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall, knew something was wrong for about six months before she was told she had metastatic Ewing sarcoma on January 16, 2018.
Miss Cuddihy now has no active signs of her Ewing sarcoma, the cancer she was diagnosed with in January 2018.
The news came while he was preparing for his exams.
He had planned to study medicine, but all that was “taken away from him,” he remembers.
Speaking about her experiences with Radiotherapy, a new podcast for young people covering difficult topics such as mental health, body image and mortality, Miss Cuddihy said: ‘All of that was taken from me in less than a minute.
‘Everything falls.
‘There are so many parts of your life that it reaches and affects.
“It’s much more than just a cancer diagnosis.”
On the podcast, he recalled being “fine” until he underwent a stem cell transplant in 2020 and “completely collapsed.” He explained that she had struggled for a long time and wished there was more support available six years ago.
According to Cancer Research UK, around 550 cases of Ewing sarcoma occur in the UK each year.
This rare bone cancer is most often found in adolescents and can cause swelling and pain near the affected bone.
It develops in supporting tissues, including bone, cartilage, tendons, fat and muscle, says Macmillan.
Miss Cuddihy, who has since completed her treatment, was left with irreparable liver damage and needed a kidney transplant.
He said he was “fine” until he underwent a stem cell transplant, used to replace bone marrow destroyed by chemotherapy, in 2020 and “completely broke down.”
He explained that he had struggled for a long time and wished there was more support available six years ago.
He also admitted that he still has trouble sleeping and has flashbacks.
Miss Cuddihy told BBC Scotland News: “There are things I’ve said on the podcast that you’ve never heard me say before and they’ve lived with me.”
“It’s almost like telling people a secret.”
While undergoing chemotherapy, Mrs Cuddihy also experienced “scary” chills linked to a hospital-acquired infection.
In 2021 he recalled his ordeal when he gave evidence to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry.
Other young people have also spoken about mental health on the podcast, including Mairi MacLean, 24, who is currently receiving her seventh treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
She said the concept of “body neutrality” helped her change her perspective on how she felt about her appearance.
It’s about being “at peace with your body, without consuming energy loving or hating it,” he explained.
‘It’s a ship that strives to survive every day, whether it has an illness or not, and that is truly extraordinary.
“My body will fluctuate and change again and again, but I am at peace with that because I admire his strength and perseverance.”