Samantha Benson Didn t Fit The Mould Of A Typical Cancer Patient

Samantha Benson didn't fit the mould of a typical cancer patient.
At 31, the marketing director from Carnes Hill in southwest Sydney was the 'the healthiest she had ever been', eating a vegetarian diet, hardly drinking and doing CrossFit on her lunch break four days a week.
So when her left collarbone 'disappeared' under inches of swollen skin in June 2018, Samantha assumed she'd pulled her neck working out and saw a chiropractor to have it realigned.
She didn't know it then, but the swelling was a large tumour - the first telltale sign that a rare form of cancer known as a 'silent killer' was spreading from her lymphatic system into her bloodstream. 
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Sydney marketing director Samantha Benson (pictured with partner Steve) was the 'healthiest she had ever been' in June 2018 before being diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer
What started as a slight swelling around her collarbone (left) quickly progressed to a massive lump (right) - among the first telltale signs of Hodgkin lymphoma
After her chiropractor suspected something more sinister was at play, Samantha saw a GP who referred her for a series of blood tests, scans and ultrasounds on June 15.
Those suspicions were justified 10 days later when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, an uncommon cancer that begins in the white blood cells of a lymph node, usually in the neck. 
'If I had an answer about what could prevent cancer, I'd be avoiding it like the plague,' Samantha, now 33, told Daily Mail Australia.
If I had an answer about what could prevent cancer, I'd be avoiding it like the plague. Lymphoma survivor Samantha Benson, 33She struggled to describe the emotions that washed over her as doctors gave her the devastating news. 

'I went completely numb.

[It felt like] nothing I ever did or would do mattered and I instantly stopped caring about everyone and everything. I wanted to disappear,' she said.
'I was a mess until I saw my mum cry, then I knew I needed to keep it together.'
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Samantha (right) was following a vegetarian diet, 'hardly drinking' alcohol and training CrossFit four days a week when she was diagnosed
Samantha reveals her shaved head in an Instagram photo posted December 1, 2018, four months into chemo
Samantha is one of just 600 Australians diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma each year. 
Hodgkin lymphoma can be difficult to diagnose because symptoms are easily confused with those of relatively harmless illnesses like viral infections, which often causes people to ignore early warning signs.
There are no screening programmes for Hodgkin's and it cannot be diagnosed with a blood test, leading health organisations to call it a 'silent killer'.
Excessive tiredness, fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, itchy rashes and painless lumps in the neck, armpits or groin should all be reported to a doctor if they persist longer than 10 days.
It wasn't until well after her diagnosis that Samantha experienced two further symptoms - intense night sweats and an unexplained nose bleed.
The chance of successful treatment and incitasecurity.com long-term survival improves dramatically the sooner Hodgkin lymphoma is diagnosed, which means early intervention can make the difference between life and death.
And in good news for patients like Samantha, it is one of the most 'treatable' cancers.

Unlike others, it is curable even at stage four when tumours have spread to organs outside the lymphatic system.
Her darkest days: Samantha undergoes chemo (left) and IVF egg retrieval (right) to give her the chance of becoming a mother after treatment

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox femail" data-version="2" id="mol-2b60bad0-dc52-11ea-82c0-e1ac625fc57b" website as super-fit marketing director, 33, diagnosed with blood cancer