A BRAVE Pwllheli teenager is sharing her emotional story of being diagnosed with cancer at just 18 years old to reach out to others who are suffering with the same disease.

Megan Davies, who recently turned 19, was just a normal teenager, with dreams of becoming a nurse, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphona, type 3B cancer, on 29 June this year.

She is on her 10th round of chemotherapy - and has another two rounds to complete.

The former Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor Pwllheli student had just completed her A-levels and was looking forward to a holiday abroad with her friends when she was handed the devastating news that she had cancer.

She said: “I was sorting out my college files and starting to pack for the holiday when I had a phone call from the local doctor’s surgery to go and get some X-ray results.

“That’s when what felt like a bombshell struck my life, with the debris thumping into the life of everyone who loved me.

“I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma, type 3B cancer.”

She added: “My diagnosis was a very long and stressful process that came with an array of complications.

“I was ill for a long time before my diagnosis. I put losing three stone and chronic tiredness down to A-level stress and being run down.

“Even doctors couldn’t work it out, so in many ways it was a relief to fin­ally know what was wrong.”

Megan was then told she would be starting her chemotherapy in the following months, but was dealt another blow that the treatment could make her infertile.

The teenager made the plucky deci­sion to halt her chemotherapy treatment so she could go through IVF and freeze her eggs.

She said: “The doctors have now frozen 14 of my eggs in case I need them one day. Perhaps they will not be needed, but it will be one less deci­sion that cancer has made for me and one less option that cancer has taken away from me.”

Megan is on her 10th round of chemotherapy – she still has another two rounds to complete – but she has bravely embraced the side effect of hair loss which comes with the treatment.

She said: “I knew from the beginning that I wanted a wig, despite advi­ce from past cancer patients that it was too itchy, or too hot.

“I wanted a wig that looked like my hair and I was referred to The Little Princess Trust which is a charity that makes wigs for children and young people who lose their hair going­ through chemotherapy.

“The charity has made the whole process of losing my hair less stressful and less scary. The wigs are truly amazing quality, and you

can’t really­ tell that it’s a wig.

“They are a truly amazing charity and I am in the process of collecting money and raising awareness for the charity as a thank you for their amazing work.

“I would like to say thanks to the pupils at Ysgol Glan y Môr who have recently raised money for the charity, I am very grateful and it means a lot to me.”

The brave teenager is also sharing her experience of her treatment through her own blog and hopes to reach out to others.

She said: “I have and still am going through incredibly hard time, in order­ to get through this, I have to just grin and bear it.

“Through writing down my thoughts and feelings in my blog I hope to reach out to someone who’s going through the same as I am beca­use I know that I am certainly not alo­ne.”