THE CLATTERBRIDGE CANCER CENTRE

Amy Cookson, a nurse at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s haemato-oncology unit at the Royal Hospital in Liverpool, much of her time is spent caring for individuals during one of the most difficult times of their lives. “It can be a peculiar and incredibly hard time when people are facing a diagnosis and often lengthy treatment and are trying to take it all in. I always try my best to support them through it in any way I can, as I know exactly what they are going through.” 

Amy’s experience on the haemato-oncology ward began very differently in 2013, after she discovered a lump on her neck. “I had just arrived home from Glastonbury and assumed I had developed a throat infection, so went to my GP to have it checked out. To my surprise, he immediately said I needed to have blood tests and a chest X-ray, which I had the next week. I was then referred to the hospital for more tests.” 

Amy Cookson, a nurse at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s haemato-oncology unit at the Royal Hospital in Liverpool, much of her time is spent caring for individuals during one of the most difficult times of their lives. “It can be a peculiar and incredibly hard time when people are facing a diagnosis and often lengthy treatment and are trying to take it all in. I always try my best to support them through it in any way I can, as I know exactly what they are going through.” 

Amy’s experience on the haemato-oncology ward began very differently in 2013, after she discovered a lump on her neck. “I had just arrived home from Glastonbury and assumed I had developed a throat infection, so went to my GP to have it checked out. To my surprise, he immediately said I needed to have blood tests and a chest X-ray, which I had the next week. I was then referred to the hospital for more tests.” 

Following an MRI scan, blood tests, a CT scan and a PET scan, Amy was told she had Hodgkin lymphoma – a cancer that develops in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the immune system. “It was a huge shock, as cancer had never crossed my mind. I was only 26 years old and hadn’t realised I had been experiencing other symptoms. I’d just put the tiredness, night sweats and weight loss I’d had down to stress and a busy lifestyle. 

“As the consultant told me I would need chemotherapy, all I could think of was my little girl, Ava, and how we were going to get through this. She was six years old, but I had to tell her I was sick and needed medicine that would make me even more sick in the short term and would make me lose my hair. She found it hard to understand as, to her, I didn’t look or seem unwell.” 

Amy decided to delay her treatment for a few weeks in order to have fertility treatment to save her eggs in the hope she could have a baby in the future. She then started chemotherapy in September 2013. “I had the treatment every two weeks for six months, which was really hard going. I lost all my hair and experienced really bad sickness, which meant some days I was too poorly to look after Ava.

Luckily, my mum became mum to us both, and Ava’s friends’ parents would also rally round to get her to school and take care of her, which was fantastic. I had an amazing support system of family and friends who were with me through it all.” 

Amy finished chemotherapy in February 2014 and fortunately didn’t need any more treatment. “I had been off work for a while, so my brain was desperate to get back to something once the cancer was gone, and I had started to re-evaluate my life and look at everything differently. I thought what better way to thank the people who saved my life than actually doing what they did but for someone else?” 

Amy took an access course, then went to university to study nursing, qualifying in September 2018. She began working in haematology at The Clatterbridge Centre in Liverpool that October. “I was so inspired by how well I was looked after by the staff at Clatterbridge that I made up my mind to become a nurse there too. I wanted to give at least one person the positive experience I had while I was in hospital, and to go into work every day and give such an amazing level of care is one of the best things I could imagine doing. 

“I think the work Clatterbridge does is so important, as not only are they caring for you physically and making your cancer go away, they also support you emotionally during an extremely difficult time and help you feel as comfortable as possible. Sometimes, when I was chatting with one of the nurses, I would completely forget I had cancer and why I was there. That was the best feeling in the world – to feel normal during such a strange time.” 

Amy discovered that caring for others also had positive repercussions on her own mental health. “I used to think ‘Why me?’ when I was diagnosed with cancer, but doing what I do now helps me to rationalise all those feelings as I think maybe this is why I had to go through what I did, to be able to help people going through the same thing. 

“Six years on from treatment, I get to come into work everyday as a nurse on the very ward I received my treatment. I feel so lucky to be in the position I am now, and to be part of the amazing Clatterbridge team.” 

Total raised: £24,523

The money raised in the Candis Big Give will go towards providing an Intrathecal Room at its new cancer hospital in Liverpool, due to open this May. The IR will be part of the hospital’s aim to unite care for blood cancer and solid tumour patients and offer haemato-oncology services to the patients treated there. Staff will use the fit-for-purpose room – which has been designed according to regulation guidelines – to deliver chemotherapy to prevent leukaemia spreading to the fluid around the brain and spine, helping to transform care for patients with leukaemia. 

Visit clatterbridgecc.nhs.uk to find out more.