Man, 29, ended up with 'sizeable lump' in his chest after ignoring initial cancer signs because he was 'too young'

Jack Hamilton was just like any other 29-year-old guy. He was working as a barber in Hertfordshire, UK, and in his downtime he would enjoy a few beers with friends down at the local pub while watching Arsenal games.

But around two years ago, Jack started experiencing chest pains. On some occasions this pain would last as long as 20 minutes.

“It could happen at any time,” Jack tells UNILAD. “Whether I'm exercising, eating dinner, just chilling out on the sofa in bed or at work. It was completely random.”

Sometimes the pains would happen a couple of times a week, and other times the discomfort wouldn’t happen again for another two months.

He didn’t get checked out. As he was only in his 20s and the soreness being so sporadic, Jack (who recently celebrated his 30th birthday) presumed that the pains were nothing to worry about.

'I thought I'm too young to have anything seriously wrong with me'

“Because it was so infrequent and because of my age, I would just forget about it,” he says. “I just thought I'd be alright.”

After two years passed, Jack developed ‘a sizeable lump’ in his chest in November 2025 that turned out to be a 16cm mass – something he knew he couldn’t ignore. As he’d reached the stage he had, Jack says he left doctors ‘no choice to just dismiss me because of my age’ and that they had to take his condition seriously. It wasn’t long until he was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In hindsight, Jack says there were other signs that he was unwell that – like his chest pains – he also dismissed.

“Looking back now, I probably didn't realize at the time, but I was a lot more fatigued and tired than I should have for normal daily life,” he admits. “I shouldn't have been as tired as I was as often as I was just from simple little tasks.”

Another thing Jack had experienced was waking up ‘drenched in sweat’, which he has since learnt is a symptom of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I just presumed I was a sweaty bugger and was getting hot in the night,” he tells UNILAD. “Turns out it was a symptom of it as well, so that's another thing that I ignored.”

As well as learning more about cancer, Jack has realized that illnesses like his can come at you at any age.

“I thought I'm too young to have anything seriously wrong with me,” Jack recalls, “but obviously not.”

After his diagnosis, Jack started a ‘very, very, very intense course of chemo’ in March. Speaking about his treatment, he explains: “I've had 16 sessions of chemo. It was very intense.

“I'd have chemo three days in a row and then four days off, and then another day of chemo and then like a two-week rest period to let my body slightly recover – and then repeat.”

The 30-year-old has been documenting his life on Instagram in the wake of his diagnosis, praising his social media page for giving him something to focus on during the extremely difficult last few months he’s had.

Jack’s also found he’s been able to help others going through similar situations.

“I'm quite glad that I've documented a lot of stuff on social media because I've had a lot of people reach out to me,” he shares. “I've tried my best to help them and talk them through this, that, the other.”

Jack goes on: “It’s given me something to focus on. The last four or five months I’ve been doing nothing and if I didn’t have my page to focus on I’d just be going to hospital and coming home and feeling sorry for myself.

“It’s good for anyone to have some sort of focus when you’re going through this stuff."

As Jack has found some comfort in sharing his story online, some advice he wants to give to others dealing with cancer is to ‘find some sort of community of other people that are going through it’.

“It really will make you feel less alone,” Jack insists.

Jack has now finished his treatment and has received the amazing news that he’s responded well to chemo and is currently in remission. He’ll have another ‘major check up’ in a few weeks time, then another one three months after that.

'Get yourself checked out'

If doctors are happy with how Jack is getting on, these check ups will drop down to every six months, and then will occur every year over a five-year period.

In light of cancer journey, Jack urges other people to go and see their doctor – even if they believe age is on their side, like he did.

“If there’s anything wrong with you, get yourself checked out,” Jack says. “If you go in and they dismiss you straight away, go back and exaggerate your symptoms. I know you shouldn’t lie, but it’s worth lying for them to take you seriously."

“If you’ve lied about how bad it is and tests come back clear, then at least you know you’re okay," he goes on. "If you’ve lied and there is something wrong with you like you thought, hopefully they can then fix whatever’s wrong with you.”

“If you’ve got to tell a few lies to potentially save your life, it’s definitely worth doing,” Jack concludes.

Gen C is a weekly series focusing on young adults with cancer sharing their experiences.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.

If you have a story to tell, send it to [email protected]