Marco’s Special Day story

Marco, 24, was diagnosed with Lymphoma just after finishing his degree. He chose to spend his Special Day at Reading Festival, taking the time to enjoy a break away from the realities of his illness and spending quality time with his best friend.

My diagnosis couldn’t have happened at a worse time for me. It was a couple of weeks after my graduation and I had to go through one of the most important days of my life not knowing whether the tests would come back positive or negative, making it really hard for me to enjoy life at a time when I should have been celebrating my success.

I first heard about Willow following a consultation with my oncologist who had just gone through my upcoming treatment plan. All I wanted at that time was to forget about my cancer. The idea that I was eligible to have a Special Day gave me something to focus on and was a great distraction throughout my treatment and everything I was going through. It kept my hopes up. I knew that however bad my experience was during my chemo and radiotherapy I had my Special Day coming up and it was going to be the complete  opposite. This helped to keep me mentally strong and determined to not let my cancer get me down.

I knew that however bad my experience was during my chemo and radiotherapy I had my Special Day coming up and it kept me mentally strong and determined to not let my cancer get me down.