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Two young women who beat the same type of cancer say teens with the disease are not alone

Roswell Park treats more Hodgkin's lymphoma patients than any other facility in the region, according to a doctor at the hospital

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Like most teenage girls, Lucy Rowland and Jill Murzynski have a lot in common.

However, it's something many people their age can't relate to that brings them together.

"About like November of 2017, I started getting a lump in my throat like Lucy did," said Jill.

For both girls, that was among the first signs for what would soon become a diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

It's the most common type of cancer in young adults between the ages of 15 and 25.

Despite its high rates among that age group, it's still considered rare. 

Jill and Lucy have crossed paths with dozens of Western New York teens overcoming the same battle, but experts say there is no data to suggest people who grow up in certain areas are more at risk than others. 

Dr. Kara Kelly at Roswell Park Oishei Children's Hospital and Blood Disorders Program has dedicated the last 20 years coming up with better treatments for the disease.

The treatments now typically include chemotherapy and radiation, which is often times associated with second cancers. 

Dr. Kelly said, "It's really hard to be diagnosed with cancer at this age. This is when young people are really transitioning to independence."

Dr. Kelly told 2 on Your Side for many patients it's a balancing act, between battling the disease and normal life as a teenager. 

Both girls remember when that reality set in. For Lucy, it was facing her peers at a school dance. 

She explained, "They knew I was sick but they didn't know what I was really going through and I show up and I was in a wheelchair with no hair and I was like Snow White, so pale."

Jill added, "It was about halfway through getting chemo and I really started to face anxiety and depersonalization and I started to get these really bad heart problems and I thought it was like a physical health concern so I went to the doctor and they said 'I think you just have anxiety.' That's when I realized I wasn't fully processing what was going on."

Over a long period of time, the number of cases has slightly increased.

At Roswell Park, they treat more Hodgkin's lymphoma patients than any other facility in Western New York.

Dr. Kelly said, "It's really the dawn of a new day in the treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma."

Right now the survival rate of young adults is greater than 90 percent.

Thanks to funding and research, more and more teens today are redefining what it means to be a survivor.

"For me, being at Roswell, I met a bunch of the media/marketing team there and they kind of inspired me to want to work in a hospital and work on the marketing and that side of it," said Jill.

Lucy told us, "I think treatment really opened my eyes to seeing more details of the world. Just because you know time is really precious especially when you're going through treatment and then I fell in love with photography because of that."

But, living with cancer is still something many young adults don't understand.

That's why Lucy and Jill want people to know its impacts both emotionally and physically last far beyond ringing the bell as Roswell.

They say the fear of it coming back is something that never goes away.

"We went through the same exact thing but then we found each other like a year later and it's just a relief to know that ... this traumatic experience, I was not alone for it at all," said Lucy.

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