I have a different story but won't be surprised if there are others out there like me. I had all the symptoms and just explained them all away.

I started getting tired. At weekends, I would even take an entire day to clean up the house - no kidding and my partner would take pity on me and at a stage he began to do all the cooking and cleaning. My routine was to clean one toilet, then rest, clean a room, rest. It's no wonder he decided to do it all. I would fall asleep at the drop of a hat whilst we were watching a movie or just sitting on the couch after a day at work. My partner would encourage me to have a check up and I'll tell him all working mothers with a new toddler are busy and therefore it was my new norm and that any reasonable doctor would ask me to slow down and rest. So I assumed I was working too hard and thus, I cut down on my hours.

I was losing weight and I cried, “oh thank goodness! My dieting is FINALLY working!” For a new mum wanting to lose her flabs after two stubborn years post-pregnancy, I was in second heaven and even used to give tips to work colleagues and friends on how (I thought) I'd lost my weight. You don't even want to know the funniest tip of all.. What a fool I was..

I would get breathless whilst walking up the stairs; my knees will hurt like MAD when I knelt down to pick up things or play with toddler and and I would say to myself, “golly Annie, you sure need to renew your membership with a gym somewhere…anywhere! Your dieting is not enough; you're out of shape, girl”.

So it continued until we started planning for another baby few months later. I did fall pregnant pretty quickly - within three weeks of the decision. It was then I found out I had a blood cancer during a routine baby-related check.. although I lost that baby, that pregnancy saved my life because without that child, I would surely have died as I am so stubborn and used to have the philosophy that one shouldn't bother with doctors unless it was ‘serious’ and I didn't count tiredness or breathlessness as serious. Indeed, weight loss was a blessing!

I will never forget that phone call from the hospital asking me to come in after I'd had my bloods taken. The circumstances of the blood being taken so early was itself a miracle and only because I pushed for them to be taken as I didn't want to take time off work to return to the doctors!

I was found to be producing almost 100 times more white blood cells than the normal human being. There was no doubt about it, I'd have fallen and collapsed to death in weeks if it wasn't discovered when it was. After many years of treatment I'm only now in remission.. I count myself blessed and I thank God every day for that pregnancy. My health is not prefect and I still take a tablet every day but I rather be here than dead and for that, I am grateful. Also, I am still working and continuing with life only that I still do get tired but nowhere near the crazy time of tiredness pre-diagnosis.

Go check yourself if your body is behaving differently. Some cancer symptoms are like the flu symptoms but if they don't go away, you might be staring at something bigger than you think.