An active young woman who was diagnosed with stage four blood cancer just four weeks after waking up with a lump the size of a golf ball on the side of her neck has revealed the warning signs everyone should know.
Marisa Sipcic, 26, spent her teenage years playing sport and was ecstatic to receive a year-long scholarship to play college soccer in the US in 2014.
After graduating, she continued to prioritise her health and fitness, spending weekends walking her pet chihuahua and hours on her feet from Monday to Friday as a barber on the Mornington Peninsula, one hour south of Melbourne in Victoria.
When an ‘awful’ itchy rash spread out of nowhere from her arms down to her legs in 2017, a puzzled Marisa saw a doctor who prescribed steroids to soothe the irritation.
By 2018, she was becoming increasingly tired and began to experience feverish night sweats, mistakenly believing her lethargy was caused by her hectic work schedule.
But one morning in the middle of August 2019, Marisa woke to find a swelling the size of a golf ball protruding from the side of her neck.
On September 19, 2019, two years after her first warning sign – and two weeks before her 26th birthday – she was diagnosed with stage 4a Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the most advanced form of blood cancer.
Victoria barber Marisa Sipcic was puzzled when a rash spread out of nowhere from her arms down to her legs in 2017
In mid-August 2019, she found a lump the size of a golf ball on the side of her neck; less than a month later, Marisa was diagnosed with stage 4a Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the most advanced form of blood cancer
‘It started on my arms and legs in red, raw, itchy welts and eventually spread to my torso,’ Marisa told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I was able to keep it under control with the tablets, creams and soap-free products, but my skin was still uncontrollably itchy and no one could tell my why.’
Marisa now knows the rash was an early sign that something was seriously wrong with her body.
After discovering the lump on her neck in August 2019, doctors performed a series of scans and a biopsy and gave her the devastating news.
Marisa is one of roughly 650 Australians who are diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma every year.
‘I was in shock. It’s not something you expect to hear just a couple of weeks before your 26th birthday,’ she said.
Marisa is one of roughly 650 Australians who are diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma every year
Marisa had lost her uncle to a different type of blood cancer at the beginning of 2019, making her diagnosis all the more difficult.
The symptoms most lymphoma sufferers experience are also seen in common and relatively harmless illnesses like viral infections, which often leads to a delayed diagnosis.
Excessive tiredness, fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, rashes and severe itching and painless lumps in the neck, armpits or groin should all be reported to a doctor if they persist longer than a week or 10 days.
If detected early, the chance of successful treatment and long-term survival improves dramatically, so early intervention can mean the difference between life and death.
Doctors immediately started Marisa on a six month course of chemotherapy along with intensive medication to eliminate cancer from her body
Marisa’s boyfriend Christopher (left) and father Dusan (right) shaved their heads in solidarity when she started chemotherapy last year
Doctors immediately started Marisa on a six month course of chemotherapy along with intensive medication to eliminate cancer from her body.
On December 10, half-way through treatment, a PET scan revealed a large volume of cancerous cells had disappeared.
One month later, Marisa and her family were overjoyed when further testing confirmed no traces of cancer remained, meaning she is now officially in remission.
Marisa has three sessions of chemo left, but she is optimistic about the future and feels excited to seize life with both hands after her frightening ordeal.
Now in remission, Marisa is looking forward to seizing life with both hands. She plans to go on holiday with her boyfriend Chris
‘The first thing I am looking forward to is going on a holiday with my boyfriend to somewhere warm and sunny. I want to see the world and experience new things!’ she said.
Marisa is grateful for the lessons cancer has taught her, the greatest being to put her health above all else.
‘I’m discovering that it’s okay to need to rest or take some time off from work and normal life duties,’ she said.
‘We only get one chance at this life and I am fully prepared to live it to the absolute fullest I can.’