Beth on how Maggie's helped her rebuild her confidence

“I’m not going in,” 20-year-old Beth insisted, crossing her arms on the pavement. Her mum only smiled. “Come in with me, just this once?”

Years later, those words would echo back to her.

A diagnosis that closed the world in

At 25, in the middle of a workday, Beth went for what she thought would be a routine check on her asthma. By that evening, she was being rushed through scans.

“When they brought in a second chair, I just knew,” she says. “That’s when everything inside me dropped.”

Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A global pandemic.

And lockdown.

“My husband was afraid to leave the house. I wasn’t allowed to. My world went from full to tiny overnight.”

Returning to Maggie’s on the Wirral

Through treatment, Beth kept thinking about Maggie’s.

“My mum had wanted me to know it was a safe place. I didn’t realise she meant it for me too.”

Near the end of radiotherapy, drained and unsure whether the centre was even open, she walked into Maggie’s, Wirral “just to ask about hours.”

Kathy met her at the door. “Come sit down, love. Cup of tea?” Beth didn’t make it to the chair before crying.

“It was the first time I’d stopped pretending I was coping… Maggie’s gave me a space where I felt safe enough to fall apart.”

In therapy with Kelly, she began unpicking fear, grief, and the guilt she carried about her mum.

“Kelly told me, ‘You’re allowed to feel angry. You’re allowed to feel everything.’ No one had ever said that to me.”

The Young Women’s Group that changed everything

When individual sessions eased, Kelly gently suggested a new support group for young women.

“I wasn’t sure,” Beth admits. “But then I walked in, and it was like breathing out for the first time.”

There were women still in treatment, women newly in remission, women terrified about the future - just like her.

“We talk about everything. Side effects, work, money, relationships, dogs… and we laugh. I never thought I’d laugh that much again.”

They became each other’s sounding boards.

“One of us says, ‘Is this normal?’ and someone else goes, ‘Yeah, I had that - ask your doctor.’ That kind of understanding is everything.”

Beth’s husband, and learning to share the weight

Beth’s husband, Andy, visited Maggie’s occasionally, but found it difficult.

“He’s private. And he knew Maggie’s was my space. But I’ve taught him some of the grounding techniques I learned here. We learned how to give each other space to not be okay.”

One lesson from Maggie’s changed everything at home:

“Kelly said, ‘You both have the right to feel what you feel.’ That helped us so much.”

Rebuilding confidence, and a future

After treatment, Beth felt lost.

“I couldn’t remember words. I didn’t trust my body. I didn’t trust anything.”

But Maggie’s helped rebuild her self-belief.

“They cheered me on more than I cheered myself.”

She left her emotionally difficult job in a cancer hospital and applied for a new role - something she’d previously felt too shaken to try.

“I told Kelly, ‘What if I’m not good enough?’ And she said, ‘Everyone feels like that. Yours is just louder because of everything you’ve lived through.’”

Beth began to consider a PhD - something she’d once expected to abandon after neuropathy made lab work impossible.

“Kelly said, ‘There’s more to research than labs. Look at what matters to you.’ So, I did.” She applied, and she was accepted.

Ten years ago, my mum was trying to drag me into Maggie’s. Now I’m doing a PhD shaped by everything I survived. That’s the difference this place made.

Hope, fear, and what comes next

Beth and Andy hope to start a family.

“It’s something I talked about with Kelly for ages. It’s still scary - but now it feels possible.”

The fear of her cancer returning still lingers.

“I don’t think it ever goes away. But I have tools now. And I have people.”

On bad days, she sits on the sofa at Maggie’s on the Wirral, looking over the fields.

“I’ve seen hares, squirrels, sunflowers. It’s peaceful. It’s where I feel calm, it reminds me of my mum.”

“Maggie’s feels like home.”

If someone hesitated on the doorstep, Beth knows exactly what she’d say:

“Cancer doesn’t just happen to one person. It happens to everyone around them.

And at Maggie’s, you don’t have to go through any of it alone. Just come in.

We’re here with you

Our cancer support specialists, psychologists and benefits advisors are here for everyone with cancer, and all the people who love them. 

• Come and see us at your nearest Maggie’s
• Call us on 0300 123 180 or arrange a callback
• Cmail us at enquiries@maggies.org