'My symptoms started around late 2002. At first I noticed a painless knot in my neck - it didn't hurt but looked out of place. As time went on, the symptoms got harder and harder to pass off. It came to a head in September 2003 when I nearly fainted on the streets and went to my GP.

'The GP noticed a hard lump in my chest and hotfooted me to the local hospital. They X-rayed me and sent me to the oncology centre where, after many blood tests, biopsies and scans, I was diagnosed with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the mediastinum. Chemotherapy (CHOP) was started immediately.

'In January 2004 scans revealed that, although CHOP had done a really good chop, I still had some lymphoma in my chest. The doctors then decided on an autologous stem cell transplant, which I had in May 2004. After about 3 weeks the doctors sent me home. They said I had done really well and that my immune system had recovered quickly. Scans then revealed I needed some outpatient radiotherapy. I was a bit down that I still had some tumour but was happy that, for the first time in months, I could be at home full time. I finished the radiotherapy in September 2004. Results from scans performed in February 2005 showed some radiotherapy scarring but that the tumour was "gone".

'You'd think I'd be really happy, but at first I was so scared at the prospect of starting my life all over again. I had become so used to blood tests, scans, hospitals, antibiotics and chemotherapy that it became hard to picture a life beyond that.

'It's now over a year since the transplant. I've never felt healthier and, although it's still difficult readjusting sometimes, I now don't think of lymphoma nearly half as much. I'm so grateful for my second stab at life and will not waste it.'