Matteus Irsø-Coombes, Community Fundraising Coordinator at CCLG, was diagnosed with leukaemia aged 24. He tells us how his outlook on life has been altered by his cancer journey and how talking about his experiences has helped him mentally.
I’d always thought that your mid-20s were when you started to plan your life out, building the foundations for the years to come, whether this be in your work or home life. But for me, this all changed in October 2019, when I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a month before my 25th birthday.
Before I was diagnosed, I was living like most people my age: going out and enjoying myself with nothing much to worry about. But things started to change when I began to feel lethargic and tired, to the point where I’d even fall asleep at work. I'd naively put this down to pushing myself at the gym and not eating properly. I perhaps should have clicked that something was wrong when I started to suffer from night sweats and waking up in the middle of the night in a soaking bed. Again, I told myself there was a simple explanation for this, like the humidity of summer.
Then I began having serious pains in my knee, but despite a lot of discomfort and after numerous doctor’s appointments, no problems were found. My doctor asked me if there were any other problems I was having and I mentioned the sweating. At that moment, my doctor knew something wasn’t right and I was told I needed to have some blood tests. A few days later, I was told I had leukaemia and was immediately put on steroids to slow the spread of the cancer. For several months, I had daily chemotherapy, which was followed by a stem cell transplant. During this time, I spent several months in hospital due to a multitude of complications, but I tried my best to remain positive and think of where I would be in a year’s time.
"Knowing I wanted to use my own experiences to benefit others, this led to me joining the fundraising team here at CCLG, where I help to support our amazing Special Named Funds.
Now, just over two years since my transplant, my perspective on life has changed significantly. I’ve become much more aware of my own mortality, and feel I need to do as much as I can with my life and not waste a single moment. I look forward to being able to travel again and see what I can of the world, exploring different cultures, eating new foods and meeting people from different walks of life. That said, there’s been moments where it’s been difficult to not think about the time I’ve lost, and things that I feel I’ve missed out on doing as a result of my illness, such as progressing my career, or even starting one. However, this only strengthened my resolve to find something I really wanted to do. Knowing I wanted to use my own experiences to benefit others, this led to me joining the fundraising team here at CCLG, where I help to support our amazing Special Named Funds.
It means a lot to me to be able to help other people, and for World Cancer Day, I took part in a Q&A to share my journey and offer advice to other young people going through a similar journey. I always find it helps me to talk about my experiences with cancer, whether that’s to consultants, colleagues, friends or family. I find it cathartic, and it helps to alleviate some of the pressure I feel from time to time. It clears my mind, and it’s important to talk, so that people know how I am feeling and to get help and support when I need it myself.
From Contact magazine issue 95 - Summer 2022
