{"id":346414,"date":"2026-03-14T19:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/346414\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T19:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T19:47:07","slug":"dublin-woman-diagnosed-with-rare-cancer-after-initially-suspecting-she-was-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/346414\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin woman diagnosed with rare cancer after initially suspecting she was pregnant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Butler from Dublin was totally shocked when she was diagnosed <\/a>with a rare form of cancer<\/a> after initially suspecting that she might be pregnant.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 2022, I was really exhausted. I had a lot of fatigue that I\u2019d written off, I was busy at the time. I started to get night sweats, which I ignored as well because it was during a heatwave.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Emma\u2019s period stopped, she was convinced she was pregnant. She went to the doctor to do a pregnancy test there, and she did a blood test at the same time.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, she got a call to say she needed to go to the hospital. The initial doctor\u2019s visit was on a Thursday and she was booked in for a hospital appointment on Monday.<\/p>\n

When Emma went to the hospital clinic, she saw signs for oncology, which made her worried. She then went into the doctor, who told her to bring the person accompanying her into the room as she didn\u2019t have good news to share.<\/p>\n

Emma was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) at just 29 years of age. It\u2019s a rare form of cancer that usually affects men in their 60s and older.<\/p>\n

Initially, the doctor told her she had a blood disorder, and it wasn\u2019t until Emma asked them outright if it was cancer that they said yes. \u201cThey kept saying it was a treatable, manageable condition, but once they confirmed what it was, I\u2019d have it for life and would need life-long treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma had to go for a bone marrow biopsy and a series of further tests, and then she started oral chemotherapy. Once her test results came through, which confirmed she did have CML, she switched to a targeted treatment called TKI. \u201cThey are tablets I have to take every day, they have a lot of side effects. They also leave me immunocompromised and more prone to infections, I can have frequent hospital stays because of these infections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Side effects of the medication include heart palpitations, which can be quite scary for Emma. \u201cIt increases your QTC interval. Your heart beat changes. Sometimes it feels like my heart stops and I can feel my whole body \u2018power down\u2019. That\u2019s really frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as getting infections, Emma can also get petechiae, which are little red dots on her body. \u201cI also get migraines, dizziness and nausea too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma will be on the treatment for life, and currently she has to get her bloods done every three months. \u201cIt\u2019s like an invisible illness because people can\u2019t see my symptoms, for example, bone pain. You have to vocalise when you\u2019re not well.”<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say to me all the time, \u2018You don\u2019t look like someone with cancer\u2019. At the end of the day, I still want to take care of myself and still feel like myself. I might present a certain image, but that doesn\u2019t mean I am feeling great [on the inside].\u201d<\/p>\n

Accepting a cancer diagnosis at such a young age was very hard for Emma. \u201cYou have an idea of what your 30s will look like. I was planning my 30th birthday party and was going to travel, and all of that was pulled out from under me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, she has good family and friends to support her, especially her partner who she describes as an \u201cabsolute angel.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds that on days when she needs to rest, her friends understand that while she wants to meet them, she\u2019s not always able. \u201cTheir kindness and empathy has been tremendously helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she was diagnosed initially, Emma took 14 months off work. She has since changed her career completely and is currently retraining as a psychologist. \u201cI received such incredible support from psycho oncology services, I\u2019d like to be able to help people in that way as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think cancer is a distinctly limiting thing, but it doesn\u2019t have to be. I am really enjoying what I do now and I don\u2019t think I would have done it had I not gotten the diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Daffodil Day, the Irish Cancer Society are urging you to stand with cancer patients and survivors and to Go All In Against Cancer. They urgently need your support to continue to provide free services for cancer patients and their families, as well as life-changing cancer research. Donate today at cancer.ie\/daffodilday<\/a>.For more information on cancer, visit cancer.ie<\/a> or ring the Irish Cancer Society\u2019s cancer nurse support line on 1800 200 700.The Irish Cancer Society\u2019s Daffodil Centres, located nationwide, offer face-to-face support from experienced cancer nurses and volunteers.<\/p>\n

To read the full article, pick up a copy of RSVP’s March issue, on shelves now.<\/p>\n

Want to see more of the stories you love from RSVP<\/a> ? To add RSVP as a preferred source of news on Google, simply click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Butler from Dublin was totally shocked when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[258,615,103,61,60,37825],"class_list":["post-346414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-dublin","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-real-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}