A courageous young woman told of the traumatic moment she discovered pressure inside her head was an uncommon cancer.

Having learned to cope with the unusual pain, Claire Pitt-Wigmore, 24, took a turn for the worse during Christmas family celebrations and was taken to hospital.

After experiencing chest pain and a racing heart, the Broadstairs-based musician would undergo gruelling medical examinations to determine the cause of her odd symptoms.

Tests revealed a mass inside one of her veins and, after an anxious wait for her biopsy results, medics told her she had cancer.

Diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Claire was told that the onset of her symptoms were unusual as the first signs anything was wrong was swelling to her upper torso alongside the feeling of pressure in her skull.

“One day I was rushed to the emergency department with chest pain and a racing heart, I had clots in my lungs and tests discovered a mass inside one of my veins,” she said.

“I had a biopsy and the wait to find out the result was just the worst. Once you know you have cancer you can process that and manage it, but not knowing was really tough.

“When it was confirmed as cancer, I was asked if I wanted to harvest my eggs. Only being 24-years-old I had no idea if I ever wanted children, but I suddenly had to decide and was given a day to do so, it was all very intense.

“I began chemotherapy and spent a lot of time at the Viking Day unit at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate. The staff all got to know me really well and were lovely.”

Unfortunately, some tests revealed that the tumour had moved from Claire’s vein to her heart, so she needed to have open heart surgery where she was given a 50/50 chance of survival.

Everything went well with the surgery and Claire was given the all-clear in January 2023, but not long after, traces of lymphoma were found in the back of her brain.

Claire said: “It was really tough finding out that actually my journey with cancer wasn’t over yet. I had to have more chemotherapy, I developed sepsis, and eventually, I needed a stem cell transplant which left me feeling very weak for a while.

“I received the all-clear in October last year and I’m doing my best to live as though it won’t come back. Overall it was a very difficult couple of years, but I just went into survival mode and did everything I could to get through it.

“I don’t think it’s possible to return to life before cancer, but I am very happy to be able to get on with life again without the pain or frequent hospital trips.

“I have started working again as a private guitar teacher, and I also play gigs in local venues both on my own and in a band.”

Throughout the challenges, Claire felt supported by her specialist cancer nurse, Ami Archer who she described as her “knight in shining armour”.

Thanking the NHS worker for keeping her going through her treatment, Claire added: “Early on in my chemotherapy, Ami Archer, teenage and young cancer specialist nurse, came and sat down next to me, introduced herself, and told me that she would be there to support me throughout my treatment.

“She was a knight in shining armour really, she was always there for me, and happy to answer any questions I had.

“It was really clear from the beginning that she was someone who was in the job for the right reasons because she got to know me as a person and was genuine about the support she could offer.”