'Doctors ignored my concerns for months. What they found shocked them.'

At 18 years old, Tara had the world at her feet. Sure, she was feeling a bit run down, but she was also busy working two jobs plus completing her placement. Being tired was just another part of her day at that point.

But as she started to grow more sick, Tara knew something was seriously wrong. She had to fight to be heard by medical professionals but she was right.

"It turned out the asthma everyone telling me I had was a 6cm tumour that was sitting on my lung," she tells Mamamia.

Cancer uprooted Tara's world as she knew it. At just 18, she went through menopause and had to grapple with the idea that treatment may ruin her chance of having children in the future.

Tara became the "sick girl" and lost sense of who she was without the disease. Then there was the weight of everyone's hearts breaking around her.

"My whole family was grieving me and I was still alive," she said.

Watch: Woman diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer at 25. Post continues below.

Advocating for yourself in healthcare: Tara's Story.

It started as a cough, which Tara didn't think too much of at first. But when it was still sticking around after six weeks, she got checked out.

The first doctor thought it was asthma-related. The second, too. But Tara knew something more serious was up.

"I started having iffy blood tests in October the year before and I was diagnosed with asthma because I had what felt like an asthma attack on a hike. I was in and out of hospital for a couple of months with asthma attacks," she said.

But doctors ignored the notion it could have been something else.

"The chances of me having cancer at that point were really low, but I could've found it at an early stage and not have had to go through such serious treatment," she said.

Tara went doctor shopping until someone took her seriously.

"I remember crying in the CT scan thinking something's really wrong," she said.

"I had to advocate for myself because I'm young. I always think back and it makes me very mad because they were just saying, 'It's asthma', 'It's nothing'."

She came home one day to missed calls from three different doctors about her blood test results. She thought she had pneumonia and went in for a chest X-ray to finally find out the root cause.

"The radiology assistant was rude to me and when I came out she was really lovely. She'd seen something that made her change her whole attitude and I knew something was there."

There was a shadow on Tara's lung — a 6cm tumour, Hodgkin's lymphoma.

It took Tara months to process the fact she had cancer. She didn't even cry for a good two weeks.

"My head was just in day to day," she said.

Hodgkin's lymphoma treatment.

Treatment was intense. Chemotherapy every two weeks for six months.

"They say it's a treatable cancer but it's treatable because of the harshness of the chemotherapy. They call it the red devil," Tara said.

Chemo made Tara very sick. She lost her hair and 30kg only to put 50kg back on.

She was told treatment could make her infertile and was offered fertility preservation, but couldn't go through with the invasive procedure.

"It broke me. That was the first reason I cried," she said.

"I cried about potentially losing my option to become a mother, which was my entire life prophecy." 

She was put on an injection Zoladex, which is often used to try to preserve fertility during chemotherapy. But it also caused early menopause.

"It was an intense thing to go through," Tara said.

"I didn't have hot flushes or night sweats or weight gain, but I had so many mood swings. I was a horrible person to be around."

Tara felt lost after chemotherapy. Image: Canteen.

"Grieving myself after treatment."

Cancer was hard, but it wasn't until the end of chemotherapy when the support and routines suddenly stopped that Tara really struggled.

"I struggled with grieving myself after treatment," she said.

"On the last day of chemotherapy, after celebrating, we had party hats, I rang the bell. It was a really good celebration, but I got home and bawled my eyes out.

"I didn't know where to go.

"You finish chemo and all of the routine of hospital and nurses and being the cancer patient, you don't get that anymore."

After cancer consumed her life for so long, who was Tara without it?

"Everyone else was really excited for me. The only people who really understood were the people who I met through Canteen," she said.

Tara was diagnosed with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder from her cancer experience. She says Canteen, a charity supporting young people facing cancer, helped with that mental health support.

Now, the 21-year-old is using her wealth of knowledge of the healthcare system to forge her career in pathology.

"If it wasn't for pathology, I wouldn't have been diagnosed. I probably wouldn't be here today without that blood test," she said.

"No one likes getting a blood test. I understand what it's like to be there for it.

"I want to be in an industry where I can see those people and help them have a good experience.

"If I didn't have some of the health professionals I know, the trauma I have now would've been so much worse."

Tara is sharing her story in support of Canteen's Christmas Appeal, which calls on Australians to raise funds to ensure that Canteen can continue to provide life-changing support to young people aged 12-25 who have been impacted by cancer. You can donate here.

Feature image: Supplied.