The BOMBSHELL that changed my life

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I was told I had a week to live’

NICOLA POOLE, 50, is a specialist family lawyer and managing director of law firm Hedges Law. She lives in Oxford with her husband, Wayne, and four teenagers.

I was nearly 40 when I started losing weight and experiencing night sweats. I’d wake up wringing wet, as if somebody had poured a bucket of water over me. I had a blood test, but was so busy with two boys under two, I didn’t think any more of it.

Then my GP rang saying, “You need to go to hospital now and pack an overnight bag.”

It turned out my blood count was on the floor. At first the doctors thought it was leukaemia, then lymphoma. They tested for TB, Lyme disease, Weil’s disease and AIDS, but couldn’t find the cause.

My symptoms continued to get worse. I had a fever and shook so hard that