For many people, getting diagnosed with cancer is the worst fear imaginable.
But for Yvonne Hook, her worst fear wasn't cancer - it was enclosed spaces.
When doctors found a cancerous tumour pressing on Hook's brain, she had to overcome her claustrophobia in order to receive the necessary life-saving treatment.
"Claustrophobia really prevented me from doing things like going into lifts by myself, I couldn't have any masks or anything over my face at all," says Hook. "I couldn't go into caves at all - I was terrified of being in tight spaces."
- The Project: Expert reveals how to treat phobias
- How to manage phobias
- Emetophobia: What it's like living with an extreme fear of vomit
Without the claustrophobia-inducing treatment, the tumour would have killed her.
"When the fear is gripping you so much, you don't really think rationally about anything," she says. "It was a matter of me having to go 'actually I have to face this and I have to do this to be able to live'."
"They had a plastic sheet that had holes in it and they heated it in some way and then they had to put it over my face, which was my biggest fear. After that, it had actually been pinned to the board and I had to lie down on on the bed."
Hook had to endure two operations to remove the cancer from behind her eye, followed by six weeks of chemotherapy.
"And with the mask, it was terrifying for me. It was the worst thing in the world to have that over my face - it felt like something was suffocating me, which is a really big fear of mine. It was terrifying. "
Then with her life on the line, she found a strength she never thought was possible.
"The more that I did those things I more I was like 'actually, I'm doing really well, I have got over this fear. "
Hook lost an eye, but the treatment saved her life. And in the process, she overcame her claustrophobia.
"It felt amazing," she says. "It felt like not only was I alive, but I wasn't fearful off the things that were happening to me anymore and I was able to expose myself to these things."
"I can go to MRIs without even getting worried about it now. And when I had the other surgery, they could just put a mask on me and it was fine," she said.
"I'm pretty much good with lifts now too."
Newshub.
