A woman's who battled an 'unbearable itch' for two years actually had cancer and is now desperately raising £120,000 to 'save her own life'.
Jade Whiston, 36, started itching uncontrollably in 2015, which would drive her to 'dig holes in herself' and leave her body covered in sores from her incessant scratching.
After doctors dismissed her symptoms as a skin infection for years, she was finally diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma in February 2017 after the skin on her chest started to swell.
With the disease already in her lungs and liver, Mrs Whiston - of Pitsea, Essex - immediately started chemo but her cancer continued to spread.
Having exhausted all treatments options on the NHS, Mrs Whiston - who married her husband Vince, 38, last November - is now trying to pay for the drug panobinostat, which is only available for patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma.
Jade Whiston (pictured left in hospital) battled an 'unbearable itch' for two years - which turned out to be cancer. After scratching her skin until it left sores, she was finally diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma in February 2017. She is pictured right after chemo
Pictured after she was diagnosed alongside her husband Vince - who she married last November - Mrs Whiston's itching was dismissed as an infection. She finally had a scan when the skin on her chest swelled. By this time, the cancer was already in her lungs and liver
'I'm fundraising £120,000 to try and save my own life,' Mrs Whiston said.
'My only option on the NHS is to accept my illness is terminal and to have palliative care.
'I have so far raised enough for my first cycle of the drug called Panobinostat which is 18 tablets.
'I will have a PET scan after my second cycle mid-March to determine whether this new drug is working.'
Panobinostat is an anti-cancer drug that stops tumour cells multiplying and triggers their 'suicide'.
It is approved on the NHS for the treatment of relapsed multiple myeloma - a form of blood cancer - in patients who have failed at least two other treatments.
These patients must also take the cancer drugs bortezomib and dexamethasone alongside panobinostat.
Common side effects of panobinostat include anaemia, reduced appetite, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, sepsis and urinary incontinence.
Panobinostat is given as an oral drug on days one, three, five, eight, ten and 12 of a three week cycle, including one week rest.
Most patients require eight cycles.
Source: Myeloma UK
Speaking of when she was told she had cancer, Mrs Whiston said: 'I was diagnosed at stage four and it had already spread to my lungs and liver back in 2017.
'I had no idea my itchy skin was a symptom of cancer.'
Mrs Whiston first developed itching and extreme fatigue in 2015.
'I was scratching so much it was affecting my day-to-day life, I was covered in sores and was digging holes in myself,' she said.
'It was unbearable but doctors kept brushing me off and said I must have a skin infection.
'After being referred to a dermatologist it wasn't until two years later when the skin on my chest became inflamed that I was given an ultrasound which detected my lympnodes were swollen.
'Following a biopsy I was finally diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, at first I felt relieved after going back and forth for so
