Imagine you are an ordinary 21-year-old living your life. You play sport, go on dates and hang out with your friends, just like everyone else. Then you notice some odd bruises and you’re not sure how they happened. You also feel like you are breathing more heavily and consider hitting the gym more often. Maybe your body is trying to tell you something…
Strange bruising was the first sign something was wrong for Lauren Thompson.
I remember getting bruises on my body which I thought at the time were from netball,” she recalls. “Then I played a game of netball and felt like my lungs were really heavy. I just thought I needed to work out more. The next day, I went for a run and the same thing happened.
By the following day, Lauren’s legs were covered with bruises. She thought bruising cream might solve the problem. But her chemist recommended she see a doctor.
The following morning, I started to get little red dots all over the bottom of my legs which I thought was very strange. I had no idea what that was, so went to my local GP and he immediately sent me for blood tests.
Lauren was on a date when her doctor called a few hours later and insisted she come back immediately.
She remembers saying, “No, no, no, it’s fine. I’ll come see you after the movie.” But her doctor said, “No, no, you need to come back now.”
The news wasn’t good. Lauren was admitted to hospital the same day and diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) – one of the most aggressive forms of blood cancer. She needed urgent treatment to stop it in its tracks.
Learn more about common blood cancer symptoms.
The dots on Lauren’s legs and her breathing difficulties were caused by low blood counts and doctors immediately began platelet and red blood cell transfusions. Days later, she started chemotherapy and struggled with severe nausea, taking many medications to manage side effects and infections.
She spent around five weeks in hospital for the first round of chemotherapy, then returned to hospital every few weeks for subsequent rounds.
Riding the emotional rollercoaster of blood cancer treatment
After Lauren’s leukaemia was treated with chemotherapy, she had to prepare for a stem cell transplant (also known as a bone marrow transplant).
Unfortunately, her siblings couldn’t donate their stem cells as they weren’t a donor match and there were limited options in the Australian Stem Cell Donor Registry, so doctors used two umbilical cords for the transplant.
Umbilical cords and placentas contain blood stem cells and these can be collected after birth without harming babies in any way. Once these stem cells are transfused into a patient’s bloodstream, they travel to the bone marrow where they start to grow, divide and mature into healthy blood cells.
Lauren says recovering from the stem cell transplant was the toughest thing she’s ever done.
“The actual transplant itself was completely fine. It’s what came after that,” she recalls. “You’ve got a hundred days after a transplant where you’re very immunocompromised and you have to recover, but you have to be very careful. You’re on so many different tablets. You are on immunosuppressants as well.”
“I remember there were times I couldn’t even get out of bed from that. I was stuck in a room and had limited visitors because they can bring in so many different germs as well.”
Lauren struggled to cope emotionally during this time and, although she initially encouraged her friends to drop by, she eventually asked them to stay away.
“After a time, it actually made me a little bit depressed, seeing them come and go back to their normal lives. And I couldn’t actually mentally deal with that, so I asked my friends to stop coming in and seeing me,” she says.
If you are struggling, our emotional support services are available to help patients, their families and friends throughout the blood cancer journey.
Meanwhile, Lauren’s family rallied around, visiting in shifts and doing their best to keep her connected to the outside world.
After five long weeks, she finally left hospital and began rebuilding her life. She took things a day at a time, listening to her body and understanding it would take time to recover from the experience.
What happens if a stem cell transplant doesn’t work?
11 months after her transplant, Lauren received bad news. The blood cancer was back.
Lauren and her family met with the haematology team to discuss her options. She began a clinical trial before later swapping to typical relapse treatment. Once the leukaemia was in remission, a second stem cell transplant was needed.
Part of me just didn’t want to do it,” Lauren says. “It was so mentally hard to make that decision. If it wasn’t for my family telling me that I have to do this and keep fighting I don’t think I would’ve.
Once again, her medical team was faced with few donor options and Lauren decided to take matters into her own hands.
I thought, this is a time I can use my story to appeal to the world, to get everyone to jump on the bone marrow registry, to raise some awareness, maybe find a match for myself, and if not myself, for someone else out there that’s really struggling.
She did media interviews, gained coverage on major television networks and her story was shared across the world to highlight the importance of becoming a stem cell donor. Lauren says this led to more people joining the registry and a match was found in the Greater European area.
Learn more about blood stem cell (bone marrow) donation.
Thankfully, her second transplant was successful and Lauren went into remission. But the emotional rollercoaster was difficult to navigate.
“I was hit with emotional trauma after each bone marrow transplant,” she remembers. “It was something I really struggled with and needed counselling to kind of get out of that mindset.”
Learn more about young adults and blood cancer.
From little goals, big things grow
Lauren began setting small goals to help her focus on the future, including gradually rebuilding her energy and fitness. The process was tough and she worked closely with an exercise and rehabilitation coach to help.
Over time, Lauren set herself bigger goals. A few years after the transplant, decided she wanted to compete in a triathlon.
I wanted to really get back to the strength that I once had. It took a very, very long time, but I made it there,” she says proudly. “I started competing in triathlons with my younger sister, doing several 12km runs for charity, going back to netball and getting back out there. It was the most amazing feeling doing things like that.”
“It’s such a slow process after each transplant. It probably takes a couple years just to get over one and it’s so slow that you think, ‘I will never be at the pace that I could run before. I will never get back to sports’. But it is possible. You just have to be very, very patient and you have to start very, very slow to kind of build yourself back up.
After 10 years in remission, Lauren competed at the 2023 Official World Transplant Games in her home city of Perth and was placed in all five of her events. It was an incredible testament to her tenacity and determination to achieve her fitness goals, no matter how long it took.
Fertility, family and IVF
Lauren also had another personal goal – to have a family of her own.
Like many others living with blood cancer, her fertility had been negatively impacted by chemotherapy. Before commencing treatment, doctors had discussed the option to harvest some of her eggs. However, there was a chance the leukaemia might be stored in any eggs that were frozen. If those eggs were reimplanted, it could mean putting the leukaemia back in Lauren’s body.
Learn more about fertility support.
“At the time, I didn’t care,” Lauren says. “It wasn’t until years later that I thought more about it. They did, through both bone marrow transplants, try and protect my ovaries with an injection. It didn’t end up working.”
Lauren’s treatment forced her into early perimenopause. For someone so young, this was an awful experience with hot flashes and other hormonal changes.
But Lauren wasn’t ready to give up.
After 11 years in remission, and thanks to an egg donation from one of her sisters, Lauren underwent IVF and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Alexander.
Life after blood cancer
Lauren now celebrates her transplant birthday every year with her family. Her treatment has resulted in some ongoing issues such as fatigue, weaker immune system and dry eyes, but she manages these by listening to her body and resting when needed.
“I think one important thing throughout that whole process that I went through was just never give up hope. Just always keep fighting,” she says.
“It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever been through. But when you come out of it and when you get back to your life, you move on and can reflect on it and be like, ‘That was a tough time, but it’s completely changed my outlook on life. It’s changed my perspective.’ I now celebrate the small wins in life and don’t get too caught up in all the drama and everything else going on in the world.”
Listen to the full interview with Lauren Thompson on our Talking Blood Cancer Podcast.
