Young paralegal becomes an inspiration to many after beating cancer

Image by MyLondon

Anglee Kumar, a 26-year-old paralegal from London was diagnosed with stage four Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in September 2021, just after she got her dream job at a top law firm in the city.

Kumar, who was seemingly healthy and did not show any of the common symptoms made several trips to the GP before she was officially diagnosed with the late stage cancer which shook her world and caught the doctors by surprise.

In an interview with MyLondon, she said, “I was the type of person who always walks instead of getting the escalator on the Tube. And then one day I realised I was getting to the top, and I was getting tired. And that never happened to me. Then I started getting heart palpitations. about ten times a day and a tightness in my chest.”

When the symptoms started showing initially, Kumar was told that she had inflammation in her chest. On her subsequent visits to the GP, she was told that she probably had anxiety due to long hours at work and had to cut down on alcohol and coffee and later she was informed that she could have coeliac disease.

Kumar then decided to go to a private clinic instead where they told her once again that it was nothing serious. She then underwent several tests including a series of blood tests, breathing tests, an ultrasound and a seven-day electrocardiogram (ECG), which came back normal. But upon insisting, she underwent a CT scan and which revealed that she had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system.

According to a report by MyLondon, Anglee recalls the moment she was told, including the difficulty of telling her mum, who had been diagnosed with bowel cancer a few years before. She said: “When they told me, it was like all my fears had come true. I left and I was shaking and crying a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much.

“It had been half an hour and I just couldn’t stop and the tissues just kept filling up with water. It was the hardest to tell my mum. Obviously she’s been through it all. Through the chemo. And so she knew what was coming. I just let my dad tell everyone because I couldn’t face my family.”

The young woman began her chemotherapy on November 16, 2021, at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital. She had to freeze her eggs as the treatment can cause damage to the ovaries. As a result, she also lost her hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and a lot of weight. However, she was still reluctant to tell her family.

She said, “That time was awful. I stopped looking in the mirror because I just looked so scary. You look sick, your family looks at you a different way even though they don’t mean to. it’s just a constant reminder of how sick you are. I lost all my confidence. I didn’t really leave my bed.

“And it sounds silly but in Asian cultures, if you’re a girl, and if you’re sick, then everyone hides it because it’s seen as a reason you wouldn’t be able to get married. I’m sure there’s a lot of Asian girls that have to hide stuff, but I’m now trying to break the stigma. But at the time I had to find a really realistic wig., which was expensive. No one knew I was bald underneath at family events. I remember three days after my diagnosis I was my cousin’s wedding thinking ‘Oh my God. Like I’m here. I’m dancing, but my world has come crashing down’.”

Things took a turn for the better as Kumar’s treatment progressed and she decided to apply for the Miss Universe contest in January 2022. She then told her family about her ordeal over the last few months.

Kumar won the second place in the competition and was the first cancer patient ever to take part in it. She is now an ambassador for cancer charity Macmillan, she has also now secured a law training contract at a top London law firm, according to MyLondon. Kumar has completed her chemotherapy and was told that her cancer is in remission on August 10. She told MyLondon, “I’ve endured the most difficult six months of my life, and this has not been easy to share so publicly, but I hope it can help inspire other women. I’m just trying to encourage women everywhere to just stand up for themselves – whether that be for their health or in the workplace. So that’s my goal now and all of the stuff I’m doing now, I’m trying to be a voice for change.”