For Charlie Taylor, his symptoms began when he was 13. While looking at the whiteboard in school, his eyes would start to sting randomly. He was tired, wracked by bad headaches, dizzy spells and had no sense of get-up-and-go. As a keen sportsman who loved boxing and football practice, even that regular activity couldn’t account for all the bruises which bloomed over his skin.
Doctors thought it was anaemia and prescribed iron. Opticians told him his burning eyes looked normal. Charlie was diagnosed with chest infections and put on antibiotics. By the time he was 15, Charlie was going to the doctor’s office once a week. His school tried to fine his parents for their son’s non-attendance.
“It was exhausting,” says Charlie, now 22, from his home in Sittingbourne, Kent. “It felt like, ‘What the hell is going on with me?’ I was having so much time off school, I was always ill. I really fell behind in my studies.”
In 2016, things came to a head. While having a pub roast one Sunday lunchtime with his family, the food got stuck in his throat. “I was in pain, I was throwing up, everyone could see there was a big problem,” he recalls. “I went back to my surgery and saw my GP. He asked how I was feeling and I said, ‘Look, you’re the professional, you tell me.’”
The doctor put a stethoscope to Charlie’s chest and his face turned grave. The next words out of his mouth were: “Pack a bag and go to Medway Hospital. Now.”
There were blood tests, a chest X-ray. Charlie’s dad was taken into a side room and the diagnosis explained: Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an aggressive blood cancer. Doctors had found a huge tumour in Charlie’s windpipe and chest. It had spread to his liver, kidneys and spleen. He was days from death but under no circumstances could Charlie’s father tell his son what was wrong. Charlie’s heart was so weak that doctors feared any strain on it would kill him.
