My name is Isaura and I am 19 years old. A year ago, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

It all started at the end of July. I woke up and I don't really know why, I touched my chest with my hand. I felt something weird, something different. To compare, I touched my sister's chest and she didn't have it. It was some kind of bump. I went directly to the doctor. There, they discovered a larger one in my neck. The doctor sent me quickly to take more tests. I was so innocent that I didn't understand what my doctor had seen so clearly. They tested me and a great doctor, to whom I owe my life, told me:

- I am not taking my vacations until we know exactly what you have.

It happened like that. They took me to the operation room for a biopsy; the most painful moment during the whole illness. Although that was what gave me the results: State II Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Words that came from a doctor who, previously, had asked me tons of questions which I didn't even know how to answer, questions that made absolutely no sense... and me, innocent, without understanding anything. Until I heard the words, well-ordered but filthy: malignant illness. Was I going to die? Treatment: chemotherapy. My world started to vanish and became white. It was an infinite space where there was a lot of light and, slowly, an image was coming towards me. It was me with no hair. It was me: sick with cancer.

It was horrible. My mom was completely depressed. My dad didn't say a word. My sister went from being a normal teenager to becoming an adult. My boyfriend didn't understand how this could happen. My friends... my grandparents... my family...

Isaura with her boyfriend

The moment came when I had to get a haircut, face what was going to come. I had a lot of energy and my goal was clear: live. In my mind the word "death" didn't exist. That and everyone around me was wad made me pass all of the tests.

Everything you see in the TV, in the street... and think: how sad... Someday it happens to you and you realize that you win more than what you lose. I won: everything I have now. I lost: everything I had to lose, to be happy.

While I listen to songs, look at pictures and cry I remember these six months, those 12 chemotherapy sessions that have changed my life, that have taught me to live, to value myself, to love others, to not give importance to the small things in life which we tend to call problems. We are people; as soon as we are born we start to die, sooner or later, in one way or another. Nonetheless, I am alive and that is why I got sick, and why I can have a relapse in the future... so? I met people who had beaten two cancers and they were back in the hospital, injecting chemicals to their body in order to survive. I swear those people were more alive than anyone you see walking in the street.

Isaura with Marta, another girl who has won the cancer battle

A huge hug for those of you who know what I am talking about or who are starting to know.

It is pointless to say that the secondary effects, both in the short-term like in the long-term, are painful, that nobody enjoys spending hours and hours at home or at the hospital. Nonetheless, the help from my family, the kisses and flowers from my boyfriend, the look on my dog, the visits from my friends and a very long etcetera are worth much more than every moment I spent sad. I love you and owe you my life.

 

Isaura and her sister

Thank you.

Isaura

If you want more information about the donation of bone marrow to help people like Isaura (and many other patients) to have the opportunity of a cure, click HERE. Remember that the donation of bone marrow is altruistic, anonymous, and universal. If you register as a bone marrow donor, you could be making a donation to a person from anywhere in the world. If you want more information, write to donants@fcarreras.es or call us on our free phone number (in Spain) 900 32 33 34.

You could also become a member of the José Carreras Foundation. With a little amount you could help us to continue our research.