A man who was diagnosed with aggressive blood cancer at age 25 has said that he mistook his symptoms for side effects of his gym and supplement routine. Marco Choi, now 28, had been experiencing headaches, muscle aches and cold sweats since November 2023. He had been going to the gym three to five times a week and took supplements including iron tablets and creatine.
Marco assumed the symptoms were nothing serious until he collapsed at work the following month. He said: “I was at the front of the [takeaway] shop and I was just taking an order on the phone. I just lost consciousness and fell down. Then I remember waking up with one of the chefs patting me in the face.”
Marco was taken to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, where doctors found he had internal bleeding that was causing blood in his stools. He needed 11 blood transfusions. A mass was also found in his chest, and he had CT and PET scans, and he was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
This aggressive type of blood cancer affects white blood cells and is most commonly diagnosed in people in their 60s to 70s. Marco said: “When they told me I had cancer, it just felt surreal, like you’re in a dream.
“And it didn’t really hit me until I was on the bus back from the hospital and I had to tell my mum. She cried, and that made me cry. We were just saying that we have got to keep going.”
Marco underwent six cycles of chemotherapy and received the all-clear in July 2024. But just one month later, he suffered a seizure and medics discovered a tumour in his brain.
He added: “The next thing I know, I wake up and I’m in the back of an ambulance with a massive headache.” He was diagnosed with secondary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, a “particularly aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of blood cancer where fewer than half of people survive”, according to Heidi Smith, nurse at Blood Cancer UK.
Marco had more chemotherapy, radiotherapy and an autologous stem cell harvest and transplant, which used his own stem cells to replace blood cells destroyed by high doses of chemotherapy. He was told in August last year that he was in remission.
“I felt amazing when I got told that,” Marco said. “The first time I beat it, I thought it was all over, and that was short-lived. This time, we laughed about it and said that it’s really over now. Two is more than enough, and we don’t need a third time. It felt like I was getting closer to being myself again.”
Marco said he is sharing his story because when he was first handed a booklet about blood cancer, he noticed a “lack of diversity” in it. “It didn’t really reflect me,” he added.
“I’m young, I’m active, I thought I was relatively healthy, and I’m Asian, but I just saw white men who were older. Even the doctors made a joke that when they saw I was 26 on the file, they thought they read it wrong and I was 62. So I want to show that anyone can get [blood cancer].”
Ms Smith said Marco’s story “shows just how devastating and unpredictable blood cancer can be, even for someone in their 20s”. She added: “It’s wonderful to hear that Marco is now back in remission after everything he’s been through, but sadly not everyone has the same outcome.
“His experience highlights just how urgently we need better treatment options for people whose blood cancer returns, particularly when it affects other areas of the body, like the brain.
“Through our £25 million Trial Treat Beat appeal, we’re determined to accelerate research and clinical trials to double survival chances for the deadliest blood cancers, giving more people like Marco the chance to survive and live their lives.”
Marco is supporting Blood Cancer UK’s £25million Trial Treat Beat appeal, which aims to double survival chances for people with the deadliest blood cancers.
