Lillie Killick was 14 years old when diagnosed with leukaemia in 2010. Now 27, she tells us how some of the support she received after treatment helped to inspire her career choices.
In December 2010, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), after having felt generally unwell for over a month. I initially had treatment at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford as there was no room in the Royal Marsden, where I finished my treatment and appointments.
During treatment, I had a reaction to two chemotherapy drugs I was being given at the same time. Apparently, this was an extremely rare reaction that had only happened to one other person before. It presented firstly with strokelike symptoms, with weakness on the left side which progressed onto both sides. I lost my ability to walk, talk and eat and, having been a keen dancer at the time, my focus and motivation was to get back into this. I also wanted my independence back. As someone who’d always been an extremely private and independent person, the thought of having others constantly care for me really scared me.
I started physiotherapy to learn how to walk again and was slowly introduced, by a dietitian, to solid foods again. This wasn’t an easy process and, being a teenager, I didn’t really share much about how I was feeling to my family or outsiders. I had treatment for two-and-a-half years, which I finished and actively went into remission on 13 March 2013. This was a joyous yet very apprehensive day and time. I’m sure lots of young people can relate to this very strange time after finishing treatment - not knowing what to do next, how to feel, or who you are. A lot of my friends had moved on and I felt as though I’d been stuck in time and now unfrozen. I was very distraught and angry at the world because I didn’t know how or where I fitted in.
I felt quite lost for a while after treatment. I was 17 and unsure what to do next. I was contacted by my hospital and asked whether I wanted to go on a four-day sailing trip on a yacht, something I was very nervous about attending. But I thought, ‘what do I have to lose?’. I was met by a volunteer from the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust (EMCT) and taken to the Isle of Wight. There, I met many other young people who were also in remission from cancer. This trip did amazing things for me and made me realise I enjoyed sailing and being around water. One of the skippers pointed me in the direction of UKSA, a watersports centre and charity in Cowes, whose education programme I enrolled in.
I spent three years gaining my watersports instructor qualifications, doing some more yacht sailing/racing and going on more trips with the EMCT, eventually becoming a graduate volunteer for them. I then was offered a job as an instructor with Mark Warner Holidays, starting in Sardinia as a member of the waterfront. I’ve done over 11 summer and winter ski seasons, working my way up, and now manage a waterfront in Rhodes, Greece.
I want to tell other young people going through cancer that there is a life after treatment. You can make it anything you want it to be despite what’s going on in your life right now. As much as my cancer diagnosis felt like my world was crashing down around me, I wouldn’t change a second of it. I wouldn’t be where I am today if all of that hadn’t happened. I’ve met so many wonderful people, done some incredible things, and now have my dream job in the most amazing country!
From Contact magazine issue 100 - Autumn 2023
