When the United Kingdom came under blockade in March 2020, Duncan knew he had to defend himself. Two weeks before the rest of the country was asked to stay home, he received a call from his team of nurses recommending that he defend himself. “I had finished my lymphoma treatment a year earlier and that left me with a compromised immune system,” he said. “I lived with my parents in Cumbria, so we stayed together. By October, he had started a university course online and dared to take long walks in his spare time, but was still cautious. “I love watching birds. “I took a lot of pictures and sometimes I sent them to friends,” he said. One of his friends shares a student apartment in Lancaster with a girl named Molly. “She offered to send me pictures of Molly because she might like them. I jokingly asked if she was single and realized it was.
About a week later, Duncan and Molly connected on Instagram. “I told him about it from my roommate. “I think he was secretly trying to set us up,” Molly said. They connected with a shared love for David Attenborough’s documentaries and nature. A week later, they arranged a short phone call and immediately contacted. “I found it really interesting and easy to talk to,” she says. Their meeting was difficult because they lived so far apart and there were no tests for Covid at the time.
Eventually, in November, they managed to go for a socially distant walk. “We couldn’t hold hands or have intimacy, which was hard, but I knew I wanted to be with her,” Duncan said. “I asked her to be my friend within the first 100 meters of our walk. Molly was nervous, but “really happy. It was hard because I couldn’t even hug him, we had to be so careful.”
They continued their relationship remotely online. “He was wearing a suit and I was wearing a nice dress and we were sitting in our living room having dinner,” Molly says, laughing. In December, Molly received a negative test for Covid and finally managed to hug. “It was still outdoors, but it was so great to be close,” Duncan said.
Shortly after meeting in person, the United Kingdom entered its third blockade. Molly went home to live with her parents in Yorkshire and continued her education online. At about this time, the symptoms of Duncan’s cancer returned. “I had some tension in my neck and at first I thought I might have Covid,” he says. But tests have shown that the lymphoma has returned and he will need a new course of treatment. In March 2021, before starting chemotherapy, Molly went to him and his family in Cumbria. “I told her I loved her there and then,” he says. “I also told her it’s a lot to do and I’ll find out if it’s too much.”
The next few months were a huge struggle for both of them. Duncan’s treatment was unsuccessful, which meant another round of chemotherapy, along with immunotherapy. “There have been many ups and downs,” says Molly. “He had anaphylactic shock after one of the treatments and I didn’t hear from him for hours. Chemotherapy became normal, but at the same time it really wasn’t. I couldn’t go out much because it meant I couldn’t see him. “
In addition to battling the side effects of treatment, Duncan is also difficult to catch indoors. “I was so jealous of other people my age coming out. “We wanted to be a normal 20-year-old couple,” he said.
Duncan got everything clear over the summer, but there had to be a stem cell transplant and a final round of intensive chemotherapy. Now in remission, Duncan will start university again in September while Molly continues her studies. “We look forward to doing normal things,” she said. “This is our first time together at the cinema and we want to go on holiday. It’s exciting to be able to make plans. “
Duncan describes his girlfriend as “a ray of sunshine …” She was really strong. During the worst of life, Molly was there to make it bearable. She is also passionate about nature, like me, and she is wonderful.
Molly likes that Duncan values her the way she is. “He’s not stupid and he always stands up for himself,” says Molly. “We were a support system for each other during this trauma and it made us stronger. He never stops enjoying life. ”
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