'My parents diagnosed my cancer': Queensland woman's devastating health battle

When Briony Benjamin first began feeling unwell she was told it was stress. But Briony was far from stressed.

She was 31, happy, successful and with a job she loved.

"I really, really enjoyed my work," Briony, 35 tells 9Honey. "It was the least stressful environment I had ever worked in for me. So they put it down to hormones for night sweats. But I was 31. I wasn't in menopause."

When Briony says "night sweats," she means she'd wake up at night drenched in sweat.

"I'd have to change my PJs," the Queensland woman explains. "In hindsight my doctor never really asked me how severe my night sweats were."

Looking back, Briony can see her doctor hadn't quite grasped the seriousness of the situation.

"I looked really well," Briony says. "I had makeup on, a tan, bronzer. I write in the book not to wear makeup when you go to the doctor!"

While she felt relieved when told nothing was seriously wrong with her, she continued to feel unwell.

"I think feeling so bad for so long and so tired for so long I accepted this was what being an adult felt like," she says. "But nobody could find anything wrong."

Soon, her mental health also began to suffer.

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"I thought maybe I'm just not very good at my job if I can't hack it," she recalls.

After months of feeling sick and not getting any answers, her parents intervened.

"My mum and dad advocated for me," she says. "They called my GP and said they were really worried about me and thought I had lymphoma. My dad is a vet, so he had a sense of it. They told her I was having terrible night sweats.

Briony was sent to Prince of Wales Hospital for tests including a biopsy of her lymph glands and soon she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

"In the first CAT scan you can see an enlarged lymph gland in my chest and one in my arm pit," she says, although she wasn't shown the scan until much later.

"By the time they found it I was Stage 4," Briony continues. "It had spread all over my body."

Briony's mother Denise had flown down to support her daughter when she was diagnosed which she admits was "overwhelming".

"My oncologist told me to think of the next three steps," she says. One of the first steps was IVF, to preserve her fertility ahead of treatment.

It was her boyfriend at the time who suggested she document her cancer journey as a way of coping and helping others.

"I didn't know where it was going to lead," she says. "My friends pulled together and bought me a mic and a little stand to take with me wherever I went. It was a lovely thing to do and in many ways a distraction.

Briony is now in remission and has written a book that includes everything she learned about coping with cancer called Life Is Tough: But So Are You.

The book also includes the wisdom of so many cancer patients she has connected with along the way.

"When I first got sick it was so dense and scary," she says. "I couldn't engage. But the words and guidance of friends and young cancer survivors helped me come out the other side.

"They gave great advice and I hoped to create the book I wish I'd had in the beginning, from a friend who's been there done that who will make you laugh and tell you what it will be like."

Briony's diagnosis was followed by 12 weeks of chemotherapy. Halfway through, she was told her cancer was in remission, but completed another six weeks.

She says chemo wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

"I had this perception that cancer patients get weak and can't move, they are tucked into bed with a drip and are nauseous and tired and nap a lot," she continues. "That didn't happen to me until the very end of chemo. Until then I could go to the shops for a coffee and live a relatively normal life. If I had my time again I wish I had been a bit more active than I was."

While her relationship at the time of her diagnosis ended, Briony has just started dating "someone so beautiful".

"I wouldn't have met him had I not had cancer," she says. "So there have been some nice twists and turns."

For those at the start of their cancer journeys, Briony says journaling, whether in written form or through video as she did, helps.

"It's about getting it off your chest," she says.

While she stops short of suggesting cancer sufferers stay positive, Briony says it's about "just finding a balance".

"If you find you are sad and wallowing and you feel like you can't get up off that couch you've got to seek professional help," she says. "For me, that was very important."

Purchase your copy of Life Is Tough: But So Are You by Briony Benjamin at your favourite book retailer.