Allison Daniels, 34, insists she is ‘undateable’ because of her cancer. I have the worst luck with men,’ said the well-educated woman, who lives on a country estate in St Albans, Herts and was diagnosed with an aggressive clear cell sarcoma primary tumour in 2012.
‘I can’t meet anyone, because I have such a random life, with check-ups every three months, to see if the cancer has returned’.Allison said: ‘Men run a mile when I tell them I’ve had cancer and it could come back. ‘Who wants to be in a relationship with someone who might die? It’s a death sentence.
‘And who can blame them? I’d say the same to my friends, not to date someone in a situation like I am in’.
Diagnosed with cancer in 2012, Allison was thought to be the first person in the world to have a rare and aggressive clear cell sarcoma primary tumour – a malignant growth that can develop in the soft tissue of the body – on her tongue.
Medics confirmed she would need a part of her tongue removed and that the tumour would then be tested, to find out what sort of cancer it was. She said: ‘That’s when I was given even more devastating news. It wasn’t a melanoma, but a rare and aggressive clear cell sarcoma. Devastated, I was crying my eyes out. ‘Doctors said they had never seen a primary tumour in the tongue before. It had never been documented anywhere in the world. ‘From then onwards, I just knew it wasn’t good. But still I couldn’t understand why I had it.
‘What they did know was that it’s very aggressive and has a high chance of coming back.’
Going under the knife at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital after a six hour operation, doctors believed she was tumour-free.
But sadly she was dumped by her boyfriend just a week after her the operation.
Then a regular check-up in May 2016 revealed the cancer had spread to her armpit, meaning more surgery and this time radiotherapy.
Allison, who has been supported by the cancer charity Maggie’s at their centre in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear, has been told she needs to be three years cancer-free before she can carry a child.
This is because of the likelihood of the disease returning during this period, and as cancer treatment during pregnancy is far more complicated.
‘I can’t believe everything that I have been through,’ she reflected. ‘I would love to meet someone and become a mum.
‘But I have to go three years cancer-free before I can carry a child and at the moment, the stigma that comes with the illness, seems to be making me a dating pariah.’
