A YOUNG woman has described how she was left “fighting for her life” after her cancer was misdiagnosed as tonsillitis during lockdown.

Caitlin Buckley had to be resuscitated after she suffered a heart attack in the A&E department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital the day before her 25th birthday in March of this year.

Her family were called to the hospital where they were given full PPE and told to say their final goodbyes after blood tests revealed Catlin had acute myeloid leukaemia and kidney failure.

The Argus: Caitlin Buckley was rushed into hospital in March this yearCaitlin Buckley was rushed into hospital in March this year

Caitlin was put into an induced coma and was given emergency chemotherapy and her family were told she had just a five per cent chance of making it through the night.

She said: “I wouldn’t have made it through the night without the chemo.

“I was given another round on the morning of my birthday while I was still in a coma. It was very dicey.

“The chemo removed the cancer, and my blood was filtered. The doctors just did everything they could to get the cancer our of my body and it worked.

The Argus: Caitlin Buckley had to be resuscitated after she suffered a heart attack in the A&E department of the Royal Sussex County HospitalCaitlin Buckley had to be resuscitated after she suffered a heart attack in the A&E department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital

“I woke up mid-April from the coma and it wasn’t until then that I was told I had cancer.”

Just a month before she was admitted to hospital, Caitlin was prescribed antibiotics by her GP after complaining of a sore throat for the third time in as many months.

Caitlin, who lives in Hanover, says she was told during a virtual consultation that she was suffering from recurrent tonsillitis and would need her tonsils removed if it were to come back again.

But after taking a turn for the worse, her boyfriend called an ambulance, and she was rushed to the hospital where she has now been for the last four months.

She believes that if she had been able to have a face-to-face appointment with a doctor, her cancer would not have been missed.

She said: “If I had been seen in person, I think I would have had a blood test then and there which would have picked up that my blood was just all cancer.”

After waking up from the coma, Caitlin said she had lost much of her short-term memory and had to be reminded of the devastating news that her sister May had died from cancer earlier that year.

She said: “It is the most surreal feeling for someone to basically tell you that you had to be resuscitated and that I had cancer.

“It was just a really, really strange experience. Obviously when I woke up, I didn’t know that Covid was a thing and it had to be explained to me.

“I had no recollection of the last few months of my life at all, so I didn’t know that my sister had died, and it was just the strangest experience of my life.”

Caitlin has now started her own YouTube channel to document her experiences.

She says that her channel, which has more than 2,000 subscribers, has helped her to create a support network for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.

She told The Argus: “One in two people get cancer and it’s good to have a concept of what people’s experiences are rather than it being behind closed doors.

“If I hadn’t known what I was expecting it would have been so much harder. I just wanted to put my experience out there.

“It will be good to look back on it one day and it has helped me to get to know people who have been through a similar thing with the same cancer.”

Caitlin is now in remission and is expected to finish her chemotherapy in September.

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