Mum ‘hungover’ from Christmas party after downing WKD Blues is diagnosed with leukaemia two days later
A MUM left battling a two-day hangover after her Christmas party was shocked when doctors revealed she had cancer.
Elizabeth Graham felt like she'd downed 20 bottles of WKD Blue, despite only drinking five.
The 33-year-old woke up feeling lethargic and achy, after the festive party in Glasgow, Scotland.
When she couldn't shake the feeling a day later, Elizabeth visited her doctor and was given a blood test.
The results revealed the mum-of-one was actually battling leukaemia.
Just days before Christmas, she started gruelling chemotherapy, which kept her in hospital until the end of January last year.
"I'm not a massive drinker but still had a good night on five drinks," Elizabeth recalled.
"When I woke up the next morning, I thought I had a terrible hangover but it wouldn't seem to shift.
"I couldn't believe it two days later, I was diagnosed with cancer."
In the weeks before her diagnosis, the 33-year-old had developed a small rash on her thighs.
But, having had the same unusual symptom when she was pregnant with her son George, now five, she told her husband Charles, 40, she thought baby number two might be on the way.
She said: “I’d been feeling really run down, almost like I had a cold. Everything felt like an effort.”
Deciding she should take a pregnancy test before her office party, she hoped to see the two magic blue lines.
When I woke up the next morning, I thought I had a terrible hangover but it wouldn’t seem to shift. I couldn’t believe it two days later, I was diagnosed with cancer
Elizabeth Graham
“Having gone through fertility treatment with George, the prospect of having another one naturally was amazing,” she said.
"I did two tests at home, and they both came back negative.
"I was disappointed as I hoped it might explain why I wasn’t feeling right.”
Putting her heartache to one side, Elizabeth got dolled for the night out at Celtic Park stadium in Glasgow on December 12, 2015.
She said: "The annoying rash I’d had in the days before felt worse at the party, but I just put it down to the thick wool tights I was wearing, and got on with enjoying myself."
After dancing the night away, Elizabeth shared a lift home with her colleague, eventually slumping into bed at 1am.
But the next morning she woke up feeling unwell, like she had a bad hangover.
“I felt like I’d had 20 drinks, not five,” she explained. “I couldn’t move and felt totally exhausted.”
Having had a duvet day watching Disney films with George, Elizabeth still felt no better by the evening.
Worried, Charles suggested she take the next day off work, and go to see a doctor.
“I went to my GP and said I had a terrible rash, felt exhausted, really bloated, and I had an abscess in my mouth too," Elizabeth said.
Straight away, her doctor ordered a blood test, and she was told the surgery would call her with the results.
She went back into work the next day, but within an hour of being back at her desk, the 33-year-old received the phone call that changed her life.
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Her husband told her the surgery had called, and wanted her to get to hospital as soon as possible.
“I had no idea what was happening, I was hysterical, so Charles came to collect me," Elizabeth said.
At hospital, medics delivered shocking news – Elizabeth had acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), a type of blood cancer.
Because there was a risk of a serious – possibly fatal – bleed because the condition can interfere with the blood clotting system, she was told she would need to start treatment straight away.
She said: “I hadn’t even wrapped all my presents, I was supposed to be hosting Christmas that year and had a freezer full of food. My mind went into planning and panic mode.
“I desperately didn’t want to be away from home at Christmas. It’s such a magical time of year, and I didn’t want to miss that.
"I also didn’t know how George, who was only three at the time and is non-verbal autistic, would cope without his mum.”
Transferred to Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow, Elizabeth began her first of four cycles of chemotherapy on December 17.
The side-effects soon become obvious, she lost her hair very quickly, and by Christmas Day, felt “really ill”.
She tucked into a hospital Christmas lunch before her family arrived.
She added: “I love Christmas but instead of being with my family at home, I was lying in a hospital bed with my son opening his presents from a black bin liner my husband had brought them in in.
"I was in so much pain that I didn’t want to live any more. But the thought of seeing my son again got me through.”
After seven days of chemo, Elizabeth had to stay in hospital for another four weeks.
Then, at the end of January she was discharged and told she would need more rounds of chemo every month until April.
Elizabeth and her family were over the moon when, in April 2016, she was told she was cancer-free.
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“I have had a lot of support from the cancer charity Cancer Research UK. It helped me feel like I am not alone,” she said.
“I’ve had a positive attitude throughout all this, and just thinking of my son and my husband pulled me through.”
Elizabeth is supporting Right Now campaign.
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