Help find childhood cancer sooner + collab | Childhood cancer awareness month 2016

My mis-diagnosis process all started when I told my mum about a lump in my bottom, which had been there for months, but I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. The next day I went to the local GP, so he could check it out and he said it was most likely a perianal abscess, and prescribed me with a 7 day course of antibiotics.
After the 7 day course of antibiotics was over, we went back to the GP and I told them that the lump was infact getting bigger. But yet again I was prescribed another 7 day course of antibiotics!
After 3 days on the second course of antibiotics, I was in a lot of pain, I couldn't sit down because of the size of my lump, I was having extreme constipation, and I was even having trouble urinating. Yet again we went back to the GP and luckily we had an amazing doctor, she took one look a the lump and straight away admitted me to the hospital for a perianal abscess removal operation. It was a relief when she admitted me, but little did I know it was so much more serious...

On September 18th, I was told that I had stage 4 metastatic Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. Due to misdiagnosis my cancer spread so much more than it should have done, ultimately making it stage 4. It is hard for me to think of that, as we could have caught it so much sooner if the doctor was aware of the signs of childhood cancer. Unfortunately, this is the same case for many children with cancer, the doctor doesn't expect cancer in a person so young, so they don't even think of it as a possibility, but it can happen! This is why we need to spread awareness, so we can diagnose children early, increasing their chances of survival.

When you are told your child has cancer, you are in a state of shock. It's another kid who gets cancer, not yours. It is completely understandable to be shocked because it is rare, so no one knows about it, but is that really how it should be? Think about it. If everyone knew the warning signs of cancer and actually accepted that it could be a possibility for their ill child, then children could be diagnosed earlier. Im not trying to say that you should open up every bruise, headache and pain as a possibility of cancer, but you shouldn't not think of it. Basically, you shouldn't think "That won't be my kid." , as you never know. The more awareness we spread of childhood cancer the better, so we can give parents the incentive to take their ill child to the doctors earlier, therefore promoting early diagnosis.

Symptoms of childhood cancer

• A lump or swelling
• Swollen glands
• Frequent bruising
• Unable to wee or blood in the wee
• Back pain that isn't going away
• Unexplained sweating or fever
• Persistant headaches
• Unexplained tiredness
• Unexplained seizures or changes in vision or behaviour
• Unexplained vomiting
• Abdominal swelling or pain all the time
• Unexplained weight loss or loss of appetite
• Changes in appearance of the eye or unusual eye reflections in photos 
• Frequent infections or flu-like symptoms

I did this blog post as a collab with my good friend, Evie, we have collabed before. Evie has Non-Hodgkins lymphoma and she has also experienced mis-diagnosis, go check out her blog post so you can ready her story and her advice.  Click here to go to Evie's blog

BE CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARE!