Pick Me Up! Special – September 2019

3 IN5 YOUNGPEOPLESTRUGGLE

WITHMENTALHEALTH

AmyLyons,22,

fromLeeds,was

desperatefora cure

toherbladder

condition...

T

E

OR

I

satonthe toilet, aged eight, with

tearsin my eyes.

It feltlike my bladder was

burningand stinging.

I experienced sharp pains

wheneverI needed to wee.

‘Let’sgetyou back into bed

sweetie,’mymum Andrea said,

puttinganarm around me.

I wasbedbound again, throwing

upwithcrippling pains and fever.

‘I justwant to go back to my

swimmingteam,’ I sobbed.

ButI knew the chlorine in the

poolmadeit sting more.

‘I know,I know.’ Mum replied.

‘Youmust have another urine

infectionAmy.’

It seemedlike I was forever on

antibioticsfor urine infections.

I hadalways been a strong

swimmerfor the school swim team

throughoutmy childhood.

Butnow,I had to give up my

absolutefavourite hobby- goingto

IMAGES: ALAMY

ThisSeptemberis BloodCancerAwarenessMonthand

Bloodwise(bloodwise.or .uk)areaimingtoraise

awarenessaboutoneofthemostcommonlydiagnosed

cancers in the country.

WORDS

BY

LUCY

BRYANT

IMAGES:

SWNS

1

There are many

different types of

blood cancer.

 True  False

2

Tiredness and

unexplained weight

loss are all symptoms

of blood cancer.

 True  False

3

Blood cancer isn’t

common.

 True  False

4

Some people don’t

need treatment for

blood cancer.

 True  False

5

Blood cancer is caused

by faults in our DNA.

 True  False

Othersymptomsinclude

repeatedinfections,easy

bruising,bone/jointpain,night

sweats,itchyskinandlumps

andswellingin yourneck,

head,groinorstomach.

3.FALSE Around40,000are

diagnosedwiththedisease

everyyearin theUKandit’s

nowthefifthmostcommon

typeofcancer.Forchildren,

teenagersandyoupeopleit is

themostcommontypeof

cancerandsomeonein theUK

is diagnosedevery 20 minutes.

4.TRUE Somepeoplemay

neverneedtreatmentatall,

andotherswon’tneedit

straightaway.‘Watchand

wait’is themethodusedto

keepaneyeonpeopleand

theirsymptomswithregular

checkupsandbloodteststo

monitortheircondition.

1. TRUE The three main
   types of blood cancers are,
   leukaemia, lymphoma,
   myeloma but there are over
   100 different types. Blood
   cancers are either described
   as acute or chronic,
   depending on how
   aggressively they are
   growing.


2. TRUE There are lots of
   possible signs for blood
   cancer including extreme
   tiredness and weight loss.
   5. TRUE All blood cancers
   are caused by mutations in
   DNA. These changes in our
   DNA are often unexplained
   and linked to thinks we can’t
   control. There are several
   factors that can influence your
   likelihood of developing blood
   cancer including age, sex and
   familyhistory.

A new survey by mental health

charity, Mind, has discovered

that over half of young people

have experienced a mental health

problem or are close with someone

who has. The survey discovered

that one in seven young people,

between the ages of 11 and 19,

would class their mental health

as poor or very poor. The

research also found that many

young people struggle to find

support in school with almost

two in five young people saying

they wouldn’t know where to go

to access support in school.

S

OR

Health

news

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