Nurse struck down with leukaemia thought she just had a very sore throat - then started vomiting blood

A cancer victim who dismissed leukaemia as a bad case of tonsillitis has detailed the moment she discovered the devastating truth - and how she battled back to good health.

Alex Lawrenson, a hospital nurse, was put on a three day course of antibiotics for what she thought was just a very sore throat, septic tonsillitis. But her condition deteriorated and she was unable to speak without vomiting blood.

The 28-year-old, who worked on haematology ward, went to A&E and was dispatched immediately to the resuscitation department. The result of a blood test revealed she had acute myeloid leukaemia.

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"The next hour or two were a blur," Alex told the Liverpool Echo.

She went on: "All I can remember is my fiancé bringing me in a bag and I had to tell him. I rang my mum, dad and other family members to tell them the doctors think I have leukaemia and I was hoping that it wasn’t.

"I informed my friends and colleagues of the diagnosis, so they knew what was going on, I remember some of them crying – that was hard. Still to this day two months later I haven’t cried or got emotional."

Alex was then moved from the A&E department at Whiston Hospital in Liverpool to the haematology ward, where she worked. She added: "Being treated on my own ward with my colleagues around me helped because they were there to help me through the tough times.

"But I think that even being a nurse doesn’t make you invincible. I now have a better understanding of what it actually feels like to be on the receiving end of chemotherapy and the side effects patients actually go through first-hand. And even though I had the