Mum's health warning after dismissed bumps were cancer

Francesca Knee-Wright found a 'very small' lump on her neck in April but since she had only had a baby three months before, assumed it was just her body changing after her pregnancy.

The 34-year-old says her GP told her over the phone that the pea-sized lump was 'probably just a gland' and to call back in two weeks.

She also noticed that she was losing a lot of weight, but put it down to doing 'really well' at the gym.

Her GP reportedly suggested it could be a symptom of an infection that she might have caught from her adopted street cats (Image: Kennedy News and Media)

But the mum-of-two was shocked when she discovered two more lumps in her neck a few weeks later and dashed to see her doctor in person.

Her GP reportedly suggested it could be a symptom of an infection that she might have caught from her adopted street cats.

However an ultrasound revealed a total of nine lumps in her neck and in August she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of cancer affecting the lymphatic system.

According to the NHS, it is 'a relatively aggressive form of cancer that can quickly spread through the body' - however doctors said she was lucky for finding the lumps when they were still relatively small.

The public relations specialist considers herself lucky to have found the lumps when she did and believes doctors should 'see you right away' when someone finds a lump - so is urging others to speak up for themselves when something doesn't feel right.

Fran, from Brighton, East Sussex, said: "When I eventually went back to the doctor after finding two more lumps they called me in person and said it might be a virus that you can get when you have cats.

"I adopted them from Spain. They are straightforward Spanish street cats. They have a lot of personality, and cause a lot of chaos.

"In the back of my head I thought 'oh gosh, a lump means cancer'. So in the very back of my head I was thinking cancer but I was clinging to anything that might mean that it is something else, something less sinister.

"So when they said the thing about the cats I thought it could be that.

"I thought it could be a cyst, people always tell you that it doesn't have to be cancer so I was clinging to any shred of hope, hoping it wasn't that.

"I went to the gym a lot and had a baby and thought my body was going through so much change. It was hard for me to know what is normal with the baby.

"I lost quite a lot of weight,  but I didn't know if it was because I just had a baby and was breastfeeding or if I was doing really well at the gym.

"I didn't know it meant I was ill. You just think it could be anything, you don’t think it’s going to be cancer."

Doctors' reportedly told Fran that it was 'amazing' she caught it so soon, as people with her condition tend to have 'much bigger lumps'.

She admitted that she is concerned over how her condition and hair loss as she embarks on chemotherapy might affect her three-year-old and eight-month-old sons.

Fran, who has set up a funding page here, said:  "I had to stop breastfeeding my baby much earlier than I intended to. It completely changed how I wanted to parent my children.

"They said that my hair would fall so suddenly and I was scared my kids would go to hug me and a strand from my hair would fall out. Can you imagine the trauma of my kids hugging me and my hair suddenly falling?"

Fran decided to 'take back control' by shaving her hair before it had a chance to fall out in order to raise funds for the Little Princess Trust, a charity providing real-hair wigs to children and young people with cancer.

She said: "As a mum I can't imagine what it would be like for my child to go through something like that, losing all their hair and navigating life."

In her fundraiser page, Fran wrote: "Let's be honest, I may be losing my hair but I'm NOT losing this fight. And while I have you, never ignore a lump. Not even tiny ones in weird places."