Now at 22, Rian has missed a lot of time in school undergoing chemotherapy and then a life-saving stem cell transplant later when the cancer recurred. Since then, he has been in remission and continues to work on rebuilding cost assessments. He also uses his story to raise awareness about the condition, as well as calling for more understanding as the illness recovers.
Speaking at a recent Macmillan conference event, he said: “I spent five years not talking about it but now I’m not going to be silent about it and I’m basically here to hopefully help as well. by others”.
He explained that the hardest point in his journey was after school, when his treatment ended.
“I struggled really badly,” he said.
“I had an implant and I thought I could achieve a sixth form – but no.
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“I had to step back a year, which is difficult for anyone to take a year back.
“I probably made up for lost time as a teenager and maybe I messed up a bit more than I should have.
“I was basically going through a rough time when I really thought about cancer a lot at the time.
“I struggled mentally. It affected my schoolwork. “
He encouraged others to talk about their condition as much as possible.
He said: “After I finished my treatment, I had a guy text me from school and he said ‘what are the symptoms of your leukemia?’
“I told him, he went and got checked and he had the same thing. He comes back to town every now and then and when I see him it’s almost like seeing a real brother.”
Acute myeloid leukemia is a type of blood cancer that begins in immature white blood cells called granulocytes or monocytes in the bone marrow.
Source: | This article first appeared on Express.co.uk
