'The most insane feeling': How a Blood Donation Changed Molly’s Life

"It was honestly the most insane feeling I’ve ever experienced."

This post is presented in partnership with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.

It’s not how most young people would expect to ring in their 18^th birthday – uprooting their life to move closer to a hospital as they prepare to escalate their cancer treatments.

It’s certainly not how Sunshine Coast University student, Molly Dawson, planned to spend hers. But, after she was told her chemotherapy wasn’t working just two days before she celebrated becoming a legal adult, she had no choice.

Now, she's living her best life again having been in remission for two years. But she couldn't have done it without a long journey of cancer treatments, the support of friends and family, and a life-saving blood donation.

We spoke to Molly about how receiving that donation changed her life and why she encourages people to donate blood.

Here’s her story.

“I was at the hospital every day, just going through the motions.”

Molly was diagnosed in April 2019 with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She was just 17 years old.

She spent the next four months driving over 500km return from Bundaberg to Brisbane with her mum for chemotherapy treatment, which she says was “pretty intense”.

“Two days before I turned 18, they told me my treatment was working but it wasn’t working well enough,” she says.

“I chose to escalate my chemo, which meant I had to move to Brisbane to live at the Leukemia Foundation. I did a month of daily radiation. I was at the hospital every day, just going through the motions. I was fresh 18 and bald. It wasn’t really how I pictured my gap year.”

Photos: Supplied.

The blood donation that changed Molly's life.

Going through cancer treatments drops your blood levels, but Molly says she never expected to feel as sick and unwell as she did, or for basic everyday tasks to become impossible.

“It got to a point where I couldn’t even stand up. I was so exhausted,” she says.

“I remember [one night] I wanted to go and get water from the fridge in the middle of the night... and I had to crawl to the fridge because there was no way I could stand up.

“The next day I went to the hospital like I did every other day and they said ‘It’s about time you got a transfusion’.

Within just half an hour, Molly was sitting up chatting with her mum again and walking around without a wheelchair. For the first time in months, she started to feel like herself again.

“It was honestly the most insane feeling I’ve ever experienced,” she says.

Photos: Supplied.

Why everyone who can donate blood, should.

Molly just had the one blood donation, but it was a game-changer.

It’s why she’s now so passionate about encouraging people who can donate to do it often.

“It changes the lives of people, especially those going through cancer treatments, so drastically.”

“There are so many people who can’t donate. I can never donate now, and a lot of my girlfriends can’t donate because they have low iron. So the people who can, it’s so important they do.”

Now, Molly’s living her best life on the Sunshine Coast with friends, studying Criminology and Justice at university and spreading awareness where she can.

“I’m happy and healthy now… feeling very lucky that my treatment worked,” she says.

“I’m so thankful to now be in remission and I have been for over two years.”

Photos: Supplied.

Molly’s story is just one of many highlighting the need for Australians to take the Bloody Oath, and with one in three Aussies needing blood every year, donors are as important as ever.

Head to the Lifeblood website to learn more about the difference you can make.

Header image: Supplied.