Mum praises cancer teams who helped her beat rare cancers

• Michaela Riley received life-saving treatment for stage 3 thymoma cancer, a type of cancer of the thymus gland in the chest.
• Since her treatment for thymoma, Michaela has had a daughter who is almost 2 and married her partner in August of this year.
• She said: “Life has looked up ever since. Having cancer and surviving it has given me the chance to start again.”

A mum of 2 has praised the expert cancer teams at Guy’s Hospital and Guy’s Cancer Centre who helped her overcome rare cancers in a life-saving operation. Their support has helped her make a full recovery. 

Michaela Riley from Lewisham, a teacher who is currently planning to open a nursery, received life-saving treatment for stage 3 thymoma cancer, a type of cancer of the thymus gland in the chest.

Michaela, who was 34 at the time of diagnosis, had a complex 5-hour operation to remove a 6.4cm thymoma and cancer found in the thyroid gland.

She began experiencing symptoms in February 2021, during the Covid pandemic. She said: “I’d had Covid, but there was this lingering cough that wasn’t going. I remember thinking, ‘It’s been about 19 days since I’ve had this cough’, and it wasn’t moving. Every time I laid on my back I felt like I was drowning. Like my lung was filling up with water.”

Michaela recalls that she was due to return to work after a period of teaching from home, but because of the excruciating pain she was advised by her mum (a nurse) to go to A&E. There she had an x-ray and ECG. Michaela said: “Just by the length of the wait I knew something was up.”

She was advised by the clinicians that they suspected cancer, and further tests would be needed. Following a CT scan, MRI, biopsy and PET scan she received the diagnosis.

Michaela’s now 13-year-old son was just 8 at the time. She said:

"It really hit me when I got home after numerous investigative appointments at the hospital. I’d just had a PET scan, they suggest that you’re not to be around children for a while after.

My son had just come from school. He came through the door excitedly and ran towards me. My mum screamed out, ‘No! You can’t hug mummy yet’. For the first time I realised there may be a point where my son would never hug me again.

Once the diagnosis was confirmed, Michaela asked to be referred to Guy’s because she had received treatment at the hospital for meningitis at age 11. She describes the cancer care she received at Guy’s as “amazing” and recalls one conversation with her medical oncologist, Dr Eleni Karapanagiotou. “She said ‘this is what it is, this is what we’re going to do, and this is how we’re going to get rid of it’. I needed someone like that.”

Because of Michaela’s age at the time of diagnosis, she was offered fertility preservation (egg freezing) treatment at Guy’s Assisted Conception Unit before undergoing 21 rounds of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour before surgery.

Michaela said: “Chemo is very tough. You walk in there ready to go and you are absolutely fine, but once treatment starts to take affect you can barely walk out. My rounds were 8 hours long, so I was often the first in and the last out. I was a baby by the end of it.

“My dad would always come upstairs, pick me up and carry me to the car. You go from being fiercely independent to needing your parents, or whoever is there, to care for you. I needed someone to parent me and parent my child. Mentally that was a struggle.”

Michaela received a range of support from the team at the Cancer Centre at Guy’s during this difficult period, including a dedicated thymoma nurse who helped coordinate her care.

The Cancer Centre at Guy’s is the leading centre for treating thymic epithelial tumours such as thymomas and thymic cancers. It combines treatments like chemotherapy with surgery and radiotherapy.

Around 380 people are diagnosed with thymus gland cancer in the UK each year, the majority of whom have thymomas. Thymomas are typically slow-growing tumours in the thymus gland in the c

Thyroid cancer is found in the thyroid gland, and is relatively uncommon in the UK, accounting for 1% of new cancer cases each year. 

In September 2021, consultant thoracic surgeon Professor Andrea Bille led the specialist surgical team who operated on Michaela at Guy’s. This surgical procedure is complex due to the closeness of the thymus gland to vital organs, including the heart and major blood vessels.

Collaboration between specialist medical oncology and thoracic surgery teams is essential to improve patient outcomes.

Professor Bille cut open Michaela’s chest to carefully remove the thymoma and part of the thyroid. The surgery was made more challenging because the cancer was in a major vein called the superior vena cava, which carries deoxygenated (blue) blood from the upper part of the body to the heart. It was crucial to reconstruct the vein and part of the pericardium (the protective lining that surrounds your heart).

Professor Bille said: “On average a thoracic surgeon may encounter a case like this once a year or even less. Despite being quite rare, here at Guy’s, we do probably one a month, because we set up this service.

Michaela has made a full recovery and now she’s five years cancer free. If you can perform these surgeries as safe as you can, you can offer these young patients the best outcomes possible. She can have a normal life, have a family and babies and enjoy her life.

Describing her surgeon as “incredible” for the care and depth of information shared, and the fantastic support she received from the whole team before and after surgery, Michaela said: “From beginning to end there was no stone unturned. None! Every time we spoke to somebody it felt like it was very personal. Like they really cared.”

Michaela has a check-up and scans every year and can contact the team as and when is needed. Since her treatment for thymoma, Michaela has had a daughter, without needing fertility treatment, who is almost 2 and married her partner in August of this year. She is looking forward to opening the nursery and spending more time with her children.

Michaela said:

Life has looked up ever since. Having cancer and surviving it has given me the chance to start again.

This year, the Cancer Centre at Guy’s is marking 10 years since it opened its doors to patients.