Just one month ago, Jenna Ellen had started her first IVF treatment and was optimistic about starting a family with the love of her life.

What she was not expecting was a stage three cancer diagnosis.

Jenna, a fit and otherwise healthy hairdresser who owns a salon, faced an unexpected upheaval in her life when she received shocking news just a few weeks into her journey.

‘This was absolutely not on my radar at all,’ Jenna, 32, told the Daily Mail.

‘I was looking forward to conceiving and, you know, hopefully being a mum. This just completely was not on our 2025 bingo card.’

Jenna and her partner Josh, from Auckland, New Zealand, are teenage sweethearts who have been together for 16 years. 

In mid-July, she embarked on her first IVF treatment and was mentally prepared for the possibility that it might affect her physically, so she wasn’t too worried about minor side effects.

In the run-up to the fertility treatment, Jenna started paying closer attention to her health.

It was then that she recognised a couple of niggling health issues that she’d been brushing off as ‘normal’.

‘Roughly a week before beginning my IVF treatment, I noticed I was experiencing shortness of breath—even without exerting myself too much,’ she explained, noting that she hadn’t been ill, doesn’t suffer from asthma, and neither smokes nor vapes.

‘Before that, I had a persistent dry cough that lingered for months without any clear reason. I’ve also always had a slightly raspy voice, which I didn’t really consider out of the ordinary.’

Many of these symptoms had been dismissed by Jenna as part and parcel of working in her bustling Auckland salon, Jenna Ellen Hair.

As a hairdresser, she frequently encounters airborne particles, and she is perpetually speaking over the noise of a hair dryer or conversing with clients, she mentioned.

‘But I was finding that I would have to say a sentence, stop, take a deep breath and then speak again.

‘Even doing everyday things like taking the rubbish out, or walking up the stairs would start to leave me feeling puffed.’

Jenna was also experiencing a ‘tight chest’ but put it down to the Pilates and gym sessions she’d been doing in preparation for a potential pregnancy.

Once she started doing hormone injections, Jenna felt as though these existing symptoms ramped up. Initially, she dismissed it as an IVF side effect. 

After doing the egg retrieval procedure on July 30, Jenna said she immediately felt some relief, but was surprised that the shortness of breath and tight chest persisted.

Jenna let her fertility nurses know and she was told to get it checked out urgently to ensure she was in good health for the embryo transfer.

Admittedly, Jenna stalled on going to see a doctor. 

She relented when the nurse called again and insisted she get checked out.

‘By that stage my voice had also kind of started to go and I started feeling just quite heavy,’ she recalled. 

At that point, she heeded the nurse’s suggestion and headed to the Accident & Emergency clinic.

Upon arrival, Jenna was given a thorough examination, which uncovered that her ‘right lung wasn’t taking in as much oxygen’.

The medical expert was concerned and sent Jenna off to hospital for an emergency X-ray. A half hour after the scan was done, Jenna and Josh were given the sobering news.

‘We’ve found a large mass in the middle of your chest, and we think it’s cancer,’ the doctor announced.

Jenna was in disbelief. 

‘My life just flashed before my eyes. It was like something out of a movie,’ she said.

A CT scan the following day confirmed that Jenna had a ‘big’ 11cm mass in diameter in the middle of her chest.

‘It was downhill from there,’ she recounted. 

‘I was in oncology, hematology. I had two biopsies. I ended up swelling up so big, I had half a litre of fluid drained from around my lungs. I was on death’s door.

‘They didn’t know what they were dealing with, and I ended up being in hospital for two weeks… they couldn’t tell me whether I was going to live or die or be okay.’

The one faint silver lining was that the IVF round had successfully resulted in 14 eggs, which had fertilised into eight embryos.

‘I found out about the eggs in the morning, and by the end of the same day I found out I had cancer,’ she said.

Treatment started immediately with Jenna put on steroids to help shrink the mass in her chest – particularly as her cough started to worsen.

After that she began a round of chemotherapy.

Following two biopsies, Jenna’s diagnosis was officially confirmed as being stage three Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

‘It is advanced, just because of the sheer size,’ Jenna said.

However, doctors told her it was among the more ‘treatable’ cancers with a higher recovery rate than many others.

With an exact diagnosis confirmed, Jenna’s doctors floated the idea of trying chemotherapy along with a new immunotherapy treatment.

Jenna was incredibly grateful to have a high level of health insurance cover, which financially enabled her to give the new privately available treatment a try.

‘As far as I’ve been told, I’m the first person in New Zealand to have the tried this new immunotherapy treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma,’ she said.

Jenna has now undertaken the first course of what is expected to be six rounds of the treatment.

‘I did lose my hair, but that’s fine. That’s the least of my worries,’ she said.

If all goes according to plan, the treatments will be done by early 2026. If the cancer is not fully eradicated at that point, then there are further options to explore, including radiation.

‘We’ll just cross that bridge when we get to it,’ she said.

At this point, Jenna says she is feeling ‘positive and confident’ – thanks in large part to having a supportive network around her, led by her long-term partner, Josh.

‘He’s been nothing short of amazing,’ she said of Josh, a construction business owner.

‘He’s been at every appointment. He’s stayed with me in hospital and he’s sorted out all our insurances and made every phone call. Honestly, I would not be able to do it without him.’

Jenna also comes from ‘a large family’ who’ve been regularly checking in on her and dropping off home-cooked meals. Her mum has been staying with her ‘on the weeks of treatment’.

‘Even my staff members have stepped up without me there in the salon. I’m just allowing everybody to help,’ she said.

‘I’m very blessed and lucky to have a really supportive group of friends and family around me.’

Interestingly, Jenna said what continues to catch her off guard is just how ‘normal’ she feels a lot of the time – despite the knowledge of the health battle ahead.

‘I definitely feel a weight in my chest, don’t get me wrong,’ she said. 

‘But sometimes I feel fine. And if I had a hat on or a wig on, you’d have absolutely no idea what I am going through.’

‘I’ve been told that there will be ups and downs, and that it will get worse before it gets better. So I’m only at the very beginning.’

Jenna has also adopted some lifestyle changes to support her treatment, including following a Mediterranean diet, cutting out sugar where possible, drinking plenty of fluids and doing light to moderate exercise.

‘I’m just trying to do everything I can to have the best possible outcome,’ she said.

‘Being so young… I’m confident that with food and the right treatment and the right support, I can get through this.’

Circling back to what kickstarted her unexpected health discovery, Jenna added that although she and Josh haven’t given up on their plans to one day start a family, she is grateful that her diagnosis came prior to them starting a family.

‘Having kids is definitely on the back burner for the time being,’ Jenna said. 

She was however ‘very glad’ to already have eight healthy frozen embryos tucked away as a ‘safety net’.

For now, the couple’s one goal is for Jenna to get well.

‘I live on the Hibiscus Coast, right on the beach. I have an amazing home that’s super sunny. It’s a perfect place to heal,’ Jenna said.

‘My friends and family have kind of just wrapped me up in this big love bubble.

‘The world keeps spinning. You’ve just got to carry on.’