Teenage fears she’ll never find love after gaining weight during cancer treatment

A teenage cancer survivor has poured her heart out about not being ‘fanciable’ anymore because the treatment has caused her to pile on weight and lose her long hair.

The incredibly moving words come from 18-year-old Natasha Anastasiou who posted a video to on a cancer support website.

In it, she reveals how she fears she’ll never find love despite going into remission from cancer – because the treatment left has her eight stone heavier.

After finding a lump above her collar bone, she was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma the day after her 17th birthday in April 2015. 

But last Christmas, she and her family celebrated with her when, having abandoning her A levels to undergo gruelling chemotherapy, she was told last there is now no sign of the disease. 

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Natasha Anastasiou was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma the day after her 17th birthday in April 2015, having found a lump above her collar bone

Despite beating the disease, her confidence is in tatters due to the weight she has gained and scar she was left with during treatment

In the heartbreaking video, posted on the JTV Cancer Support Network website, she says: ‘The problem is that I feel like I have to justify the way I look to other people’

Despite this, her confidence is in tatters due to the weight she has gained and scar she was left with during treatment.

In the heartbreaking video, posted on the JTV Cancer Support Network website, she says: ‘The problem is that I feel like I have to justify the way I look to other people.

‘I have never been in a relationship, so I can’t talk about how it’s affected me previously. 

‘But I feel like I have to justify my hair, although it’s a lot better than it was, it doesn’t grow right and it doesn’t sit right.

‘And more importantly, I don’t look like I used to and it’s affected my confidence a lot.

‘I put on a lot of weight in a very short amount of time – I put on around eight stone in six months, meaning that I have a lot of stretch marks.  

‘I feel less confident than I did before, and with that comes a lot of doubt. Why would anyone be interested in me?

‘Why would someone want to be with someone who has had something very unpleasant happen to them?

‘Maybe they will feel like I have a lot of emotional baggage, which I don’t think I do.

‘So I’ve basically come to the realisation that if someone likes me they are going to have to like me for the way I am now, not the person who I was before.’

Despite the video confession, the brave teenager is looking forward to resuming her studies at in September.

However, she will still undergo chest X-rays and physical examinations over the next five years before she can be declared ‘cured’.

And friends, family and neighbours are rallying round to cheer her up and make her realise the gift of life is the most precious thing of all.

Her mum, Lesley Graves, 49, said: ‘We were elated when we found out she was in remission, but of course there’s this cloud of the next five years.

‘However, we have decided to put that aside and be grateful for what we have and get on with life.

‘You never expect to have to tell your child they have cancer.’

The Hodgkin’s lymphoma five-year survival rate for young men and women between 15 and 39 is 95 per cent.

Her father, Des, 54, said: ‘As far as I’m concerned she is fine. The chances of it coming back are the same as anyone else’s.

Family members and friends took part in the Race For Life at the Lincolnshire Showground in July 2015 and raised £2,711 for Cancer Research UK.Miss AnastasiouMiss Anastasiou

For the next five years, she will have chest X-rays and examinations before she can be declared ‘cured’

Miss Anastasiou, with her parents, said: ‘I’m lucky I’m still here. I should be grateful for that rather than annoyed about how it has affected my life’

Miss Anastasiou is determined to be upbeat. She said: ‘I’ve realised I should be grateful for what I have rather than sad for what I don’t.

‘I’ve been told from the start of my treatment that the chance of relapse is quite low, which obviously is great.

‘However, the chance of me developing cancer in the first place was quite low, which suddenly makes anything, no matter how unlikely, seem extremely possible.

‘I’ve reached a place in my head where I’ve realised that even if I worry or not, if the cacner is going to come back in two, five, 10 or 20 years time, me worrying about it will not make a difference.

‘I’ve also decided that I need to stop being frustrated about the time I’ve lost.

‘At the end of the day, my life so far hasn’t gone the way I wanted it to.

‘But neither has most other people’s, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life complaining about something that can’t be changed and just accept what has happened and move on.

‘I’m lucky I’m still here. I should be grateful for that rather than annoyed about how it has affected my life. 

‘I’m forever grateful for every day I wake up and feel well. I was never like that before, and in reality when I look back I was ungrateful for what I did have.

‘I was doing well at school, had a lovely group of friends, and had my family close by. It’s a shame that this had to happen to make me realise that.

‘But now that it has, I will never be ungrateful for those things ever again.’