When my GP assessed me, he just couldnt explain it, she recalls. Referred to Heartlands Hospital, Sophie was given a blood test. By then I was sitting on a ward. Everyone else was 60-plus and had leukaemia and I thought Well, I havent got that. I was 20.

Finally she was called into a tiny consultation room. The doctor had his head in his hands. I literally dont believe it, he told Sophie. Its leukaemia.

In the blink of an eye, Sophies old life ended. She called her parents (You better hurry up because its not good) and was immediately admitted to hospital. Diagnosed on Friday, treatment began on Monday. So swiftly did it begin that there was no time to think about side-effects. No time for saving fertility or anything like that, she recalls matter-of-factly, her bright Chelmsley Wood accent belying the astonishing gravity of her experience.

Her hair started falling out. She had Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), one of the four types of life-threatening, acute leukaemia. (Other non-curable but largely non-fatal forms of the disease are known as chronic leukaemia.)Of the 10,000 or so people diagnosed with leukaemia in the UK each year, about 350 have ALL.

There are no official statistics but estimates suggest that five-year ALL survival rates for 15-24 year-olds are about 70pc. One of the key factors affecting that survival, however, is early diagnosis. To put it bluntly, if any cancer has progressed so far that patients walk straight in to A&E, bypassing their GP, it bodes poorly.

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'I was given a terminal diagnosis and then a new therapy cured my leukaemia' - The Telegraph