Lauren Gill was sipping white wine as she caught up with friends after work when she felt a searing pain shoot through her neck and shoulders.
‘It started on the right side of my neck and quickly spread to my right fingertips, like pins and needles,’ says Lauren, 30, a podcast host from St Albans, Hertfordshire.
‘I’d been spending a lot of time in the gym, so assumed I’d pulled a muscle.’
The pain disappeared after 20 minutes so Lauren stayed for a couple more drinks and forgot all about it.
But a week later she popped to a bar for a gin and tonic and the same thing happened again.
Lauren Gill, 30, discovered she had Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the white blood cells that fight infection, after she experienced pain in her neck and shoulders from drinking alcohol
‘It was awful – one second I was chatting to my friend and the next I was in complete agony,’ says Lauren.
‘This time I had only a couple of sips before I was left with severe pins and needles all down the right side of my body, from my neck and shoulders to my hands, which continued for about 20 minutes – then mysteriously disappeared.’
Lauren continued to get similar pains down the right side of her body every time she had even a few sips of an alcoholic drink.
‘I still thought it was gym pains,’ she says. In fact, the true cause was more sinister – Lauren had Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the lymphocytes, white blood cells that fight infection.
The cancer makes them multiply quicker than usual and they then lodge in glands called lymph nodes, which are dotted throughout the body, and develop into tumours. The first sign of Hodgkin lymphoma is often swollen glands in the neck, armpit or groin – but some patients will also develop a reaction to alcohol.
That’s what had happened in Lauren’s case, however she had no idea that her reaction was the sign of anything serious. She simply started to avoid alcohol.
Then, on Christmas Eve 2018, a few months after her first reaction, Lauren went to visit a friend, who offered her a festive Baileys.
‘I hadn’t drunk for about six weeks and I thought I’d try a small shot and see what would happen,’ Lauren says.
She took one sip and immediately felt an intense pain in her right arm and shoulder. ‘It was the worst reaction I’d had so far,’ she recalls.
‘I had only had the tiniest bit and my arm went numb. It was really scary.’
The reaction was so severe that she went to see her GP, who sent her for blood tests.
About one in 20 of those who experience symptoms related to Hodgkin lymphoma will experience alcohol-related symptoms
Lauren was shocked to learn her levels of white blood cells ‘were triple what they should be, which showed they were in overdrive and fighting something serious’, she says.
How serious was revealed in March 2019, when, after battling a cough so bad that she could barely speak, Lauren was referred for a chest scan.
This revealed that she had two masses in the middle of her chest, by her right lung.
A subsequent biopsy confirmed they were tumours and doctors broke the news to Lauren that she had stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.
‘I burst into tears, it was all such a shock and out of the blue,’ says Lauren. ‘I was only 25 and hadn’t even felt that ill, apart from the cough and reaction to alcohol – and now I was being told I had cancer. I felt completely numb.’
Each year in the UK about 2,000 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and it’s most common in those aged between 15 and 35, says Dr Graham Collins, a consultant haematologist and lymphoma lead at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Anyone who has had glandular fever and those with impaired immune systems, for example due to autoimmune disorders, are slightly more at risk.
Cases are on the rise, but while much work has been done to determine why, ‘it’s pretty much drawn a blank’, says Dr Collins. ‘We simply don’t know.’
While tumours often lodge in the lymph nodes in the neck, armpits and groin areas, they can also occur in lymph nodes elsewhere in the body, such as the chest or abdomen.
Here, the glands can’t be felt, but instead any tumours may cause symptoms if they press on tissue or surrounding organs. Patients may experience breathlessness, a cough (as Lauren had), abdominal discomfort or feeling very full in the abdomen after meals, for instance.
And about one in 20 of those affected will experience alcohol-related symptoms, says Dr Collins.
One theory is that ‘when a lymph node is affected by lymphoma, the outside capsule is somewhat stretched’, he adds.
‘When you drink alcohol, the blood vessels in the body dilate and this could cause further, more sudden, stretching of the capsule around the lymph node, causing pain.
‘It can be a dull ache or even a more sharp pain, coming on usually 30 to 60 minutes after drinking alcohol,’ says Dr Collins. ‘It can occur anywhere there are lymph glands, for example under the arms, in the neck or in the chest.’
Another symptom is weight loss and drenching sweats, says Dr Collins. ‘The lymphoma cells that develop in the lymphocytes can release chemicals called cytokines,’ he says. ‘These can cause inflammation and fever and when a fever breaks, we sweat.’
Lauren says she didn’t drink that much alcohol before her diagnosis and now only tends to drink on special occasions – opting to go to the gym rather than the bar
Hodgkin lymphoma is treatable with intensive chemotherapy and sometimes radiotherapy, too.
But, as with all cancers, the earlier it is caught the better.
Sadly about 500 people still die of lymphoma in the UK each year, around 300 of whom will be aged under 25.
After her diagnosis, Lauren was told she would need chemotherapy – but she delayed treatment by two weeks so she could have her eggs frozen, as she was warned the cancer drugs could damage her fertility.
She then had three months of intensive chemotherapy.
‘It was really difficult facing chemo when all my friends were continuing to live their lives as normal and having fun,’ says Lauren.
‘When you are diagnosed with cancer, you expect everyone else’s lives to stop too, but they carried on while I was in a sheltered bubble at the hospital having my treatment. It was a really tough and scary time and my hair fell out, which was devastating.’
Lauren finished chemo in July 2019. She had to go for tests at the hospital every three months, but in May 2022 was told she was officially in remission.
‘I was so emotional when I was given the all-clear and I cried lots of happy tears,’ she says. ‘It was such a huge relief.’
She has now started a podcast, F The Noise, to share her cancer journey. ‘I want others to recognise that a strange reaction to alcohol could be an early symptom,’ says Lauren.
‘It took me a while to go to the doctor because I had no idea about this rare and subtle symptom – and by that time it had spread from my chest to my lungs.’
Many other people have contacted Lauren since she shared her story, ‘saying they have experienced the same thing’.
She says: ‘I didn’t drink that much alcohol before and now I tend to only drink on special occasions. I go to the gym, rather than the bar.
‘The treatment has left my immune system slightly damaged, so I’m susceptible to catching things. It means I’m more careful about going into crowded places and I wear a mask on the Tube.’
The experience has changed Lauren’s outlook on life. She now works for herself so she can take a break if she needs more rest, and prioritises her health.
‘I no longer go at 100mph like I used to,’ she says.
‘Having cancer really makes you put new priorities in place.’
