A young woman has spoken of how her world was "turned upside down" when she was diagnosed with cancer just months after losing both her parents.
Mai Aly, 31, was told she had a rare type of blood cancer in November last year – just three months after her father Dr Salah Aly died of colon cancer aged 72.
That same year, in February, her mother Ihsan Bayoumi, 62, died from a brain tumour.
Miss Aly, from Islington, started feeling exhausted, losing weight and suffering stomach pains the month after her father died.
She initially put her symptoms down to the grief and said: “I had grief counselling but a month after my dad died, I realised it couldn’t just be grieving or a simple stomach inflammation – by this point I had lost over two stone and the doctors started to seem concerned.
“After so many tests, scans, biopsies I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma – a rare type of blood cancer.
“Initially I was devastated and thought I was going to die. My world turned upside down, everything I knew about my life was about to change.
“I felt frightened. I was worried about pain, and losing my hair was difficult to deal with emotionally.”
Miss Aly said she no longer recognised herself when she looked in the mirror, adding: “But I also realised I couldn’t stop living – a life with cancer is still a life, and I decided to plan achievable activities to look forward to while having treatment.”
Miss Aly, a project manager, was told last week that she is now in remission.
She is now planning try to run 5k at Macmillan Cancer Support’s Run Regent’s Park on Sunday to celebrate the end of her six-month treatment.
Her father Dr Aly was a professor at Cairo University in Egypt where he specialised in pain treatments - mostly for cancer sufferers.
Miss Aly said she always knew his work was important but added: “Only now I can fully understand how it affected people’s lives.”
After undergoing chemotherapy at the London Clinic, doctors have told Miss Aly her outlook is looking very positive.
During the charity run, she will be joined by her boyfriend Ashley and her friends, who all supported her through her treatment.
Visit www.macmillan.org.uk.
