Mum-of-two Rafaela Ribeiro, 24, was diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system, and later had to be placed in a coma
A mum-of-two has revealed how doctors told her she had just 24 hours to live as a result of an aggressive cancer that was “crushing” her insides.
Rafaela Ribeiro’s ordeal began when she started to rapidly lose weight; she shed nearly three stone in a matter of weeks earlier this year, but she wasn’t overly concerned.
“I thought everything was fine, that I was just losing weight very quickly,” said the 24-year-old, who has almost 600,000 Instagram followers. “I never imagined it would be anything more serious.”
But Rafaela – a real estate agent from São Paulo, Brazil – was soon diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system.
“It started with a constant dry cough and then came the swelling in my neck and armpits,” she said. “A few days later, I could no longer swallow anything solid because the tumour was squeezing my chest.”
Initially, medics dismissed her symptoms as pneumonia or an allergic cough. But after Rafaela collapsed and was no longer able to eat, she went for scans – and they revealed the awful truth.
“The tumours were crushing me from the inside,” she said. “My oesophagus was compressed and my heart felt like it was being taken over, but it was just the pressure from the tumours.”
Rafaela began chemotherapy – but in a cruel twist of fate, she contracted a deadly hospital superbug during treatment.
As a result, she was placed in an induced coma for nine days and doctors warned her husband, Michell, that she might not survive the night. She said: “They told my husband I could die within 24 hours. Miraculously, I survived.”
Rafaela believes the coma, in fact, saved her life. “This period of fasting helped me achieve remission,” she said. “If I hadn’t caught this infection and ended up in a coma, they might not have been able to control the disease.”
Rafaela is now in remission and awaiting cutting-edge CAR-T cell therapy – an immunotherapy that trains the body’s own cells to destroy cancer.
“Today, the disease is stable; it’s still present, but it’s under control,” she shared. “I’m on the waiting list for cell therapy.”
Thankfully, throughout it all, she has had the unwavering support of Michell, with whom she shares two sons, aged eight and two.
“He was the one who held it all together,” Rafaela said. “I don’t know how I would have gotten through it without him.”