A year in the life of lymphoma

What do you do when you get the worst news of your life?

Hide? Cry? Surround yourself with your nearest and dearest? Make a video about what may be the scariest journey
you’ve ever been on?

Briony Benjamin did all those things and more when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 31.

Briony has kindly shared her story with Mia Freedman as part of the No Filter podcast series with Mamamia and as a video collage of her one year with lymphoma.

Thanks so much Briony for sharing your journey to give hope to others.

Mia Freedman’s No Filter podcast

Mamamia – Lessons learned in life  

You only get one life – a short film by Briony Benjamin  


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Contact Lymphoma Australia Today!

Please note: Lymphoma Australia staff are only able to reply to emails sent in English language.

For people living in Australia, we can offer a phone translation service. Have your nurse or English speaking relative call us to arrange this.

Useful Definitions

  • Refractory: This means the lymphoma does not get better with treatment. The treatment didn’t work as hoped.
  • Relapsed: This means the lymphoma came back after being gone for a while after treatment.
  • 2nd line treatment: This is the second treatment you get if the first one didn’t work (refractory) or if the lymphoma comes back (relapse).
  • 3rd line treatment: This is the third treatment you get if the second one didn’t work or the lymphoma comes back again.
  • Approved: Available in Australia and listed by the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA).
  • Funded: Costs are covered for Australian citizens. This means if you have a Medicare card, you shouldn’t have to pay for the treatment.[WO7]

You need healthy T-cells to make CAR T-cells. For this reason, CAR T-cell therapy cannot be used if you have a T-cell lymphoma – yet.

For more information on CAR T-cells and T-cell lymphoma click here. 

Special Note: Although your T-cells are removed from your blood for CAR T-cell therapy, most of our T-cells live outside of our blood – in our lymph nodes, thymus, spleen and other organs.