Katherine Murrell is just 27 but has been diagnosed with cancer an astonishing three times.
A woman whose symptoms were initially dismissed as a trapped nerve went on to be diagnosed with cancer three times. Katherine Murrell, 27, recalled how her extraordinary experience also led to her chosen career in the ambulance service.
Katherine, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, first experienced back pain at the age of 16. Doctors originally thought this was nothing to worry about.
However, following drastic weight loss, she was referred for blood tests and later to the haematology team. Then, at a time when she should have only been worrying about her GCSEs, her whole life was turned upside down.
Katherine was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma – a type of blood cancer which affects the immune system. She underwent six months of gruelling daily chemotherapy and then a month of radiotherapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
She was given the all-clear and had regular check-ups with her doctors to ensure the cancer had not returned. However, seven years later, she noticed a swollen lymph node in her neck and began to worry the cancer had returned.
By this time, she had started working at London Ambulance Service and was training to become an emergency medical technician (EMT). The results of a biopsy came the day before her graduation and showed the lymph nodes and her thyroid were cancerous and would have to be surgically removed.
After the operation, she was once again given the all-clear, but a year later, a couple of her lymph nodes were found to be on the border of being pre-cancerous and were removed using keyhole surgery.
She said: “When I was training, I was petrified because I suspected I had thyroid cancer and wondered if I could still work at the service, as well as wondering if I was going to be alright. Then the breast cancer came along and that really tested me.”
Since Katherine, who now lives in Great Dunmow in Essex, had received radiotherapy so young that she was at risk of secondary cancers, including breast cancer. To minimise this risk, she decided to have a double mastectomy.
As Katherine prepared for this, a tissue sample revealed a very small tumour in her breast. She was diagnosed with cancer for a third time.
Despite all of the challenges, she credits her cancer with giving her the drive to help the NHS, which has now saved her life three times. Katherine said: “I’ve now spent 11 years going to regular hospital appointments time and time again and when you get that used to it, you want to give something back – that’s my mentality I suppose.”
Now she is thriving in her role and has huge aspirations for her time in the service. She said: “Months on from those diagnoses and with an all clear, it has not impacted my career at all. If anything, it’s enhanced it. It has made me acutely aware of my abilities, my empathy and compassion – it’s given me that skill.
“I now use it as a superpower and I’d advise anyone going through a similar situation to try to do the same. I know it’s not easy, but I tried to see the good in the bad, the learnings in those struggles.”
She added that her interest in paramedicine was first sparked after she was rushed to hospital in her late teens by ambulance due to a complication of her cancer. “The staff were so incredible,” Katherine said.
“When we got to the hospital, that’s when it really hit me that the medic crew was amazing and how cool it would be to do something like that. They got to me really quickly and then gave me exactly what I needed.
“I now know that was just in a day’s work for them, but the care they gave has really stuck with me.” Luckily, Katherine has been cancer-free since the end of 2023.