Sophia first saw a doctor after collapsing while on holiday in Cyprus
Sophia Maclaren says her symptoms were dismissed (Kennedy News and Media)
A teenager says doctors ‘fobbed off’ her extreme tiredness and bleeding for a year as a ‘normal’ contraception side effect – only to discover it was leukaemia. Sophia Maclaren first visited a GP in August 2024 when she felt constantly tired and lost her appetite, before passing out on a family holiday in Cyprus.
Initially believing it was sunstroke, Sophia, then 17, went to hospital and received treatment before coming home. Back in the UK the admin assistant continued to suffer with extreme tiredness, nausea and dizziness, so went back to the doctors for another opinion.
Over the next five months Sophia claims she visited a GP every two to three weeks but says her symptoms were dismissed as simply ‘her period’ or ‘being a teenage girl’ every time. Sophia claims she also mentioned to one doctor that she had been ‘bleeding for a year’, but says this was fobbed off as a side effect of her contraceptive implant.
It was only when she began to experience discomfort in her lower back and a doctor eventually asked if she was suffering with any chest pain that she was referred to hospital. There, after undergoing tests, Sophia was diagnosed with leukaemia on March 7, 2025 and after two rounds of chemotherapy was discharged in August 2025.
Now cancer-free, Sophia is sharing her story as she doesn’t want another young woman to be dismissed like she was. She credits her ‘pushy’ mum for ‘not taking no for an answer’ and says she doesn’t like to think how much worse it could have been if she’d not been further dismissed.
Sophia, from Fife, Scotland, said: “For nine or ten months I was constantly tired, I didn’t have any energy to do anything and I didn’t have an appetite. I went on holiday to Cyprus with my family and boyfriend in October 2024, and ended up having to go to hospital while away.
“I was on the beach and I passed out, I was so unwell. My mum was convinced it was sunstroke as I do get quite badly burnt on holiday as I try and get a tan. We assumed it was something like that and I had spent too long in the sun and exhausted myself.
“I was feeling tired, I was sick and I felt dizzy, they’re all symptoms of sunstroke. [Back in the UK], I had waves of being unwell. I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for three days and then I’d be fine. Closer to my diagnosis I also had chronic lower back pain just above my hips.
“I was constantly on what we thought was my period for nearly a year straight. I was constantly bleeding for a year, I was told I was just a teenage girl and this was normal. I had the implant and they were like ‘it’s just a side effect of the contraception’.
“When he [the hospital doctor] said leukaemia at first I didn’t think I heard him correctly. I was in shock and it didn’t hit me until two or three days into my hospital stay.” Now in remission, Sophia has to attend a check-up every three months and has a special blood test every month to check her cancer hasn’t returned.
Sophia said: “If my mum wasn’t as pushy as she was I don’t know what would have happened in the long run. She just knew that I wasn’t okay and wasn’t going to take no for an answer, I’m glad she was like that. When I found out I was cancer free I was in shock. It was the same morning my boyfriend and I got the offer accepted for our house, it was a bitter sweet day.”
Now Sophia is raising awareness about her experience and urges others, especially young women, to keep pushing for a diagnosis if they believe something is wrong. Sophia said: “I had every symptom on the NHS list for leukaemia, I don’t want this to happen to someone else.
“I think they fobbed me off because of my age as well. Don’t take the dismissal and ‘no’ for an answer, you know your body better than anyone else does. If you think something is wrong, something is 100% wrong. Don’t let GPs dismiss you, I think it was worse because I was a young woman as well.”