Hello everyone, my name is Maite and I was diagnosed State I Hodgkin's Lymphoma on June 26th 2009. This is my story:

It all starts when one night, while I was taking off my makeup; I discovered a bump in my neck. At first I thought it was a contracture for I had fallen in the shower a few days earlier. On the next morning I went to the doctor and he told me that it could be a contracture, that we were going to study it for 15 days and if it didn't disappear he would run some tests. After 15 days, the contracture hadn't decreased so he ordered some blood tests. When he got the results he told us that there was something but that he wasn't sure, that it could be a simple infection, but he preferred sending me to see an otorhinolaryngologist so that he could order an echography of my neck.

A few days later we went to see him and instead of taking an echography of my neck he ordered a complete body scan, which didn't give me a good feeling. After tests and a biopsy to see what I had exactly, they gave me the worst diagnosis: State I Hodgkin's Lymphoma. When they gave us the results at the consult, I was with my parents and who today is my husband. I could only ask if this was curable. He looked at me and told me that with the correct treatment it could be cured but... I asked him to stop talking and told him that it was the only thing I needed to know, that it could be cured.

I could only think about my wedding, which was going to be a little less than a year from then, and that I wanted to get married that day, so we talked to the haematologist and she told us that, if everything went well, I had to be treated with chemotherapy for six months, but we had to wait and see how my body digested it. Finally, it was 4 months of chemotherapy plus radiotherapy.

After reaching home after the diagnosis and crying with boyfriend like we had never cried before, we looked at each other and said, we are getting out of this and we are going to marry on the day we have chosen. He looked at me and told me: "You have put me in this wedding mess" (he was a little scared of getting married) "and now you are not leaving me alone, so we are going to win."

So we did and after four months of chemotherapy and eighteen sessions of radiotherapy, the alien had disappeared and, finally, on May 22nd 2010 we were married and we made one of our dreams come true: travel to New York for our honey moon. Today, after almost three years of finishing treatment, we are waiting for the best present of all, which is the arrival in a little more than one month of our baby Emma. Who could have imagined this the day they gave me the diagnosis.

So, to all of you who are fighting this illness now, I want to support you and tell you that you can beat this. We have to fight until the end, we are more and stronger, so keep going. We can never forget the people we have beside us, who are the ones that help us keep going and, despite it isn't easy for them, without them it wouldn't be possible. For this reason, I want to thank EVERYONE WHO WAS NEXT TO ME DURING THESE MOMENTS.

If you want more information about the donation of bone marrow to help people like Maite (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.