A young man has opened up about the symptoms he experienced before being diagnosed with stage four cancer at just 21 years old.

Jay Shew, from Sydney, Australia, admitted that he had been “brushing off” some early warning signs of his declining health until they could no longer be ignored.

Taking to social media, Jay shared his journey in hopes of raising awareness about the symptoms and urging others to visit a doctor as soon as possible if they notice similar issues.

In August 2023, a few months after his symptoms first appeared, Jay was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma—the most advanced stage of the disease.

As explained by Cancer Research UK, Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that develops in the lymphatic system and impacts white blood cells known as lymphocytes.

The charity notes: “When you have Hodgkin lymphoma, some of your white blood cells (B lymphocytes) become abnormal and multiply. You then have more lymphocytes than usual, but they can’t fight infections as well as they should.

“The cells can then clump together usually within lymph nodes or other parts of the lymphatic system to form tumours. This can cause problems in the lymphatic system and the part of the body where they are growing.”

Experts at Harvard have found that a symptom of Hodgkin’s lymphoma may sometimes present itself after consuming alcohol.

But what were the warning signs that Jay initially ignored?

In a TikTok video, he shared that the first indication of his health issue came after a routine blood test last summer.

“I didn’t have any symptoms at the time, I was just living normal everyday… A couple of days later, my results come back,” he explained.

“She calls me and she says, ‘Your calcium is high.’ I don’t think much of it, I left it. But when your calcium is high, it means that your bones are fighting off a disease. I didn’t know that.”

Months later, Jay mentioned that friends and family started noticing significant changes in his appearance—changes he didn’t recognize at the time.

Jay shared: “I started losing a lot of weight, and I literally turned white. I looked like a ghost, I was so pale. But I didn’t notice.”

“I looked in the mirror and thought, ‘I’m fine? I don’t look skinny, I don’t look pale.’ I couldn’t see it.”