UPDATE: |Young doctor told she has leukaemia while on shift in A&E News

Alice Bolton, 28, was working in A&E as she was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer

A young doctor in her 20s was told she has cancer while on shift in A&E.

The devastating news came just one hour after having a blood test for suspected glandular fever in the same hospital.

Alice Bolton, a 28-year-old doctor was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), an aggressive form of blood cancer, in May 2024 while working in A&E in Australia. Days before her diagnosis, Alice had been training for a half marathon, running up to 20km.

However, when she noticed swollen lymph nodes in her neck and bruising on her legs, she suspected glandular fever and decided to get a blood test. Within an hour, she went from being a doctor in the hospital to becoming a patient.

By October 2024, Alice had undergone chemotherapy and gone into remission. Tragically, she relapsed in March 2025 and was informed that she would need a stem cell transplant as “this will be the cure”.

Both of Alice’s sisters, Emma, 31, who works at a biotech company, and Kate, 29, a solicitor, are perfect matches for the transplant. Alice is hopeful to soon “draw a line under” her cancer journey.

“I’m very lucky that I have two sisters who are a match, and this will be the cure,” Alice told PA Real Life.

“But it makes you realise that even if you are a healthcare professional, these things can still happen.”

After completing her medical foundation training in the UK, Alice moved to Melbourne in October 2023, where she worked as an emergency care doctor. Alice went with her now-husband, Hayden, who is also a doctor.

While preparing for the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon and routinely running distances of up to 20km, Alice found herself unexpectedly struggling just days before the May 2024 race. Even “struggling to run about 5km”.

“I noticed that I had swollen lymph nodes in my neck and there was some bruising on my lower legs, and I’m not one to bruise easily, so I thought I should probably get a blood test,” Alice remembered.

Alice suspected her symptoms were due to glandular fever, a viral infection.

“I was actually on shift, and they literally called me about an hour after I’d had the blood test, saying, ‘You need to go to A&E straightaway’,” she explained.

“I said, ‘Oh, that’s weird, because I’m actually here anyway, I work in A&E’.”

Expecting to be sent home with advice to avoid spreading what she believed to be glandular fever, Alice faced a staggering revelation instead.

Alice was informed that she had leukaemia and that her treatment needed to begin without delay.

“I was shocked, but the thing I was most concerned about was having to phone home and tell my sisters and my parents because I think that makes it more real,” she added.

Emma, who was on an expedition when she heard the news, shared her disbelief: “You just never expect it from someone so young and healthy, especially because she was talking about all her running.”

Kate shared her feelings about the distance: “Being so far away from her was stressful and shocking, but we all rallied together as a family.”

On May 26, 2024, Alice received her official diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a condition that Leukaemia UK says has a five-year survival rate of 22 per cent.

Alice’s family, including her parents and sisters, flew to Australia to support her through her intensive chemotherapy treatment, which led to hair loss, extreme fatigue, and nausea.

After completing her initial chemotherapy, Alice returned to the UK in June 2024, where she was greeted with a heartwarming “Love Actually airport moment” by friends and family.

Continuing her treatment in London, Alice reached full remission by October 2024, describing the feeling as a “complete relief”.

With plans to run the TCS London Marathon alongside her sisters, Alice faced a setback when a routine bone marrow test in March 2025 showed she had relapsed, an event Kate called “cruel”.

The next step in her treatment was a stem cell transplant, and remarkably, both Emma and Kate were identified as perfect donor matches.

The charity Anthony Nolan has disclosed that there’s only a six per cent chance of siblings being a full match for a transplant, making the case of Kate and her sister remarkably rare.

Kate said: “We have this deep sister bond and when they said, ‘You three are all a match’, it was really magical.”

Alice had to face the heart-wrenching decision to delay her wedding with Hayden due to her relapse, but the couple moved quickly to organise an alternative ceremony on March 15 at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London, which Alice described as “amazing”.

Hayden shared his feelings about the day: “On the day, and even the day before, the fact that Alice had relapsed didn’t come into my head once, I was just super excited to marry the love of my life.”

Currently, Alice is undergoing recovery from her latest chemotherapy treatment. If successful, she’ll receive a stem cell transplant in May.

Both Emma and Kate are gearing up to run the TCS London Marathon to support Leukaemia UK, hoping for cheers from Alice who plans to hold a sign saying: “Run my stem cells, run!”

While no longer able to participate herself, Alice anticipates that watching her sisters finish the marathon on April 27 will be a “super emotional” experience.

Alice is determined to inspire others with optimism. She and her sisters often repeat a quote from Harry Potter’s Dumbledore: “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

To learn more about her journey or to contribute to her cause, visit her fundraising page at justgiving.com/page/the-bolton-girls