Kayla Lyall is speaking out after doctors repeatedly dismissed her symptoms as stress before she was diagnosed with stage II cancer.
Kayla, 31, from Vancouver, Canada, first started feeling unwell in 2024 at age 28, when she was diagnosed with alopecia and began experiencing unexplained weight loss, itchy skin, and fatigue. When she brought her concerns to her doctor, she was quizzed about her stressful job in investments and her sleep quality rather than given diagnostic tests.
“I was getting so frustrated,” Kayla said. “Doctors would still dismiss my symptoms as stress, and I don’t think stress was causing me to feel winded after hiking up a hill.”
Initially, Kayla herself suspected an autoimmune disease rather than cancer. After visiting a naturopath, she started taking what she describes as “every supplement in the book,” but her condition failed to improve. Her symptoms escalated dramatically over the following months.
“It wasn’t until I developed lumps, started struggling to breathe at night, and began experiencing fainting spells that doctors were like ‘okay, something’s wrong’,” she adds.
The turning point came on January 10, when Kayla discovered a lump in her neck. She visited her doctor days later and was referred for a neck ultrasound, which she underwent on January 21. However, she still needed a CT scan, and by this point she had researched her symptoms extensively and suspected blood cancer. Despite her deteriorating condition, she was placed on a six-month waiting list.
A frightening episode of violent coughing that left her unable to breathe prompted Kayla to seek out a different healthcare professional. This new doctor ordered an ultrasound and X-ray, which revealed a mass.
“The new doctor expedited my CT scan to four months [instead of six], but I was still really struggling,” Kayla shares.
Her health continued to decline as she discovered a second lump in her armpit. “It was awful,” Kayla continued. “When they did the first CT scan they only did part of my body, and then I went back begging for answers.”
She managed to get on a cancellation list and secured a scan on February 14 rather than waiting until June. The results led to an emergency biopsy of her armpit lump and additional bloodwork. Days later, she received her official diagnosis: bulky stage II Hodgkin lymphoma.
“If it wasn’t for me calling for cancelations, switching doctors, and begging, almost pleading, for someone to listen to me, the diagnosis would have never happened that fast,” Kayla said. “It was spreading so fast. Thank God I went and busted doors down to get somebody to listen to me.”
The consequences of her self-advocacy became starkly clear in the months that followed. “My original doctors called me in June telling me to come in for a CT scan, and at this point I was already four months into my chemotherapy,” she goes on. “I was so far ahead of what would have happened had I waited all those months. It’s crazy.”
Kayla began chemotherapy on March 12, 2024, enduring what she called “the red devil.” She says: “It was one of the awful things I had for the entire six months. That’s the one that wipes you.”
The grueling treatment proved worthwhile. Kayla is now cancer free, with recent scans coming back “super clear.”
“They gave me a full CT scan, PET scan, all the blood work – everything that I should have had right when everything was starting – and there was absolutely nothing,” she says. “I feel like I can actually breathe again.”
Kayla will now undergo yearly check-ups to monitor for any recurrence. The experience has fundamentally shifted her outlook on life. Before her diagnosis, she adhered to what she describes as “regimented rules” about productivity and discipline.
“I was so obsessed with living by these regimented rules that you have to work hard to get a good job, you have to go to the gym everyday, and you have to be disciplined,” she said. “I think [my diagnosis] was a way of my mental health and body telling me to slow down and kick it for a bit and see what that does for my life.”
Kayla will continue her yearly monitoring appointments to ensure her Hodgkin lymphoma has not returned.