A student who revised for exams throughout gruelling treatment for stage three cancer has passed her A Levels with flying colours – after being inspired to become a doctor.
When Kira O’Connor Fitzgerald, 18, will start her studies on the pathway to becoming a medic - two years on from getting the devastating diagnosis.
It came when Kira felt a mysterious chest pain on the morning of one of her GCSE exams in June 2018. She thought it was anxiety.
However, two worrying lumps developed on her neck during that summer, leading to a diagnosis of stage three Hodgkin lymphoma – an uncommon cancer of the lymphatic system – just after she started sixth form.
Teachers gave her the option to resit the year at a later date but, not wanting to fall behind, the determined teenager, of Swindon, Wiltshire, continued to study in hospital during her chemotherapy sessions.
Despite her youth, fortitude was already part of Kira’s make up – having lost her mum Maureen aged just 48, in November 2016 to sepsis – and with her dad, Michael, 50, living over 2,000 miles away in Cyprus.
But with A Level grades of A ,B, B, Kira has landed a coveted place at St George’s University, south London.
She will study biomedical science with a pathway to medicine and said: “I’m over the moon. The moment I opened my results and saw that I’d got into university was amazing. It’s everything I’ve worked for over the past two years coming true.”
“I’m so happy to be one step closer to my goal of becoming a doctor.”
Only 120 teenagers are diagnosed with this form of cancer in the UK each year, the first sign of which is often a painless swelling of either one, or a group of glands, according to charity CLIC Sargent.
Kira said: "As strange as it sounds, I wasn’t upset for me. I was upset for my family. I had not long lost my mum and I didn’t want to put them through more heartache.
“Calling my brother Mikie to tell him was one of the worst moments. That made it all the more real.”
Kira then juggled school and chemotherapy, which she had for six months, from November 2018 to April 2019 – documenting her journey on Snapchat and Instagram.
She continued: “The culmination of physical and mental side-effects was a lot to cope with and I was very up and down. Some days, I’d feel I could take on the world, and others, just getting up in the morning felt like the hardest thing to do.”
The excellent care she received helped her to decide that medicine, should be her vocation and she became determined to become a doctor herself.
“I want to help people in the same way I was helped, but it also looks like such an interesting job. Whenever the doctors would speak in medical jargon, or list all the medicines I would be taking, I’d note down what they said and look it up afterwards," she added.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without CLIC Sargent. They helped me process everything, and see that any outcome was okay – I’d still done amazingly to keep up with school.”
She will soon be heading off to St George’s University in September to study biomedical science with a pathway to medicine – a course that will eventually allow her to become a doctor.
By sharing her story, she wants to offer hope to young cancer patients and also raise awareness of CLIC Sargent, which helped her in her hour of need.
