Woman Who Had 'Terrible Hangovers' After Just Two Drinks Finds Out She Actually Has Cancer

When the 19-year-old woman was finally told she had cancer, she was shocked because she had ended up vomiting and coughing after every night out.

Credit: Jam Press

The florist and swimming instructor Poppy Beguely initially realized that she handled alcohol differently than many of her peers in April of 2022.

Even while most people her age could handle a few drinks before things went south, Poppy claimed it would only take her two drinks to "feel a lot more drunk than most people my age and maybe three, four drinks before I would start feeling very ill."

When Poppy got home, things didn't really get better as she continued: “Nearly every night I would go out it would end in me vomiting the same night or the morning following."

After a night of drinking, a teenager from Auckland, New Zealand, started to notice that she would cough up blood and that a rash on her face would "flare up and get worse."

Credit: Jam Press

When the symptoms persisted, she began to grow increasingly concerned, even though at first she felt she was just going a little too hard on her nights out.

Three times between June and October of 2022, Poppy was admitted to the hospital following a night out.

When Poppy visited the hospital in December 2022 with a hurting neck, the doctors' initial diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis was withdrawn, and they began giving her blood thinners.

After a PET scan and a biopsy of a tumor on her neck, Poppy was diagnosed with stage-three Hodgkin's lymphoma, a rare illness that spreads throughout her body and develops in the lymphatic system, a network of veins and glands.

Credit: Jam Press

Poppy not only has a lump in her neck but a six-centimeter growth in her chest.

Poppy said: “Part of me was happy that I didn’t have to worry about what exactly was wrong anymore. But then, the other part of me was obviously quite upset that I was going to have to go through chemotherapy."

Poppy had been a model for a few years, so she was aware that "you win some and you lose some," but she found it difficult to comprehend how the diagnosis would affect her appearance.

“The doctors were reassuring that it was unlikely to be fatal as long as I didn’t get any bad infections while doing chemo – they have a high remission rate for Hodgkin's lymphoma," she explained.

Not long after turning 20, in February 2023, Poppy started a four-month course of chemotherapy.

Throughout the four months of treatment, Poppy was hospitalized due to a "very severe and rare reaction to a blood transfusion."

Poppy continued, describing the response as "the worst pain" she had ever felt: “I was on so many painkillers that it totally screwed up my stomach and bowels and in turn my weight dropped down to 35kgs (5st 5lbs) and left me stuck on a feeding tube.”

“[This was] the only time I was really scared for my life.”

Thankfully, Poppy overcame treatment and is currently experiencing remission.

She claims to have a "different outlook on life" as of right now, saying: “I’m grateful that I won my life back, especially after a year of not knowing [what was wrong].”

Her story reminds us that even when life throws unexpected challenges, we can find the strength to overcome them.