A young Auckland woman who realised she had cancer after drinking alcohol is warning people to be wary of unexpected symptoms.
Poppy Beguely, 20, started coughing up blood and experiencing "terrible hangovers" after consuming small amounts of alcohol just months before being diagnosed with stage three cancer.
"I didn't really find out I could have cancer until I started drinking alcohol. My tolerance had completely disappeared, and I started getting really sick after drinking," she told Newshub.
"Coughing up blood and vomiting was the biggest red flag," she said. "Nearly every single time I went out drinking, I was hospitalised the next day."
She was 19 years old when she first started experiencing the "horrible reactions to drinking".
"Two or three cocktails and I would pretty much be out dead - which was very different to experiences in the past," she said.
"I'd wake up with terrible hangovers after just a few drinks, and I started becoming really tired all the time.
"I knew something strange was going on. As soon as I started coughing up blood I went to the hospital to find answers."
She said she ended up in the emergency department several times and was hopeful she would find an explanation - however she "didn't get the right answers".
"One time I went to hospital and the nurses started injecting me with blood thinners thinking I could've had a blood clot - it was horrific," she said. "They didn't even confirm I had it before injecting me.
"After that I started passing blood clots in my urine, and when I told them about it they said 'Oh you have a history of chronic pelvic pain, it could be that'," Beguely said.
She said the symptoms continued, including a skin rash on her face.
"My skin would flare up really badly after drinking," she said.
"My skin started cracking and I got put on steroid creams, but nothing would fix it.
"Doctors told me it could be eczema, dermatitis or staphylococcus. I wanted to believe them, but I knew it was something else."
Beguely explained she'd "clicked that something was really wrong" after waking up one morning.
"I went away for a weekend, and I was sleeping on a blow-up mattress, and then I came back to Auckland and had a really sore neck, so went to get some painkillers from my doctor," she said.
"Then my doctor asked, 'Okay is that all?', and that's when I said 'No, there's heaps going on'.
"I told them all about it and then they realised something wasn't right after hearing all of my symptoms."
She said during her "unexpected" symptoms, she'd started to notice a tumour had formed on her neck.
"I didn't think much of it until experiencing all of these symptoms. I'd entered this hole of just not wanting to talk to anyone about it, but I eventually talked about it with an oncologist who told me I had all the symptoms of cancer," Beguely said.
"I'd visited about four doctors before this, who had all brushed off my symptoms and hadn't taken them seriously.
"The oncologist then referred me to an urgent ultrasound and so I did that.
"The ultrasound came back looking dodgy and then I got biopsies done, and eventually I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma."
She said the moments leading up to her diagnosis she "had a feeling she had cancer".
"I kind of already knew I had it, I had spent hours researching what was wrong with me, no doctors were taking me seriously," she said.
"I had requested all of my blood and urine samples from the last year and looked into all of my abnormalities."
After being diagnosed, Beguely started chemotherapy in February 2023 shortly after her 20th birthday, which lasted for four months.
"Chemo luckily got rid of the cancer, and I didn't have to get any surgeries," she said.
Now living her best life, Beguely is a swimming instructor at an Auckland pool facility and works as a florist - two things that help keep her happy.
When asked by Newshub what message she has for people experiencing similar symptoms she said: "I've said it once, and I'll say it again - I'd even shout it again - you out of anyone else knows your body best."
"If you know something is wrong, don't just shrug it under the carpet because one person isn't taking you seriously."
Beguely admitted she's "still working at getting my own feet back on the ground".
"At the moment I'm thinking about what to study and working on a plan to go overseas and just have cool adventures over summer," she said.
"Aside from that I'm happy. I'm happy to be alive."
