Super-fit mum’s horror as ‘pulled muscle from lifting weights’ seems to be one thing sinister
EXCLUSIVE: Morgan Hewlett had thought she had pulled a muscle, but the pain in her chest turned out to be far worse during a routine gym session earlier this year
A super-fit mum who was told she’d ‘just pulled a muscle’ lifting weights in the gym was ‘devastated’ to eventually be diagnosed with stage four blood cancer. Morgan Hewlett felt a pain in her chest while performing chest flies in the gym in February 2025.
The 33-year-old says she visited her doctor who confirmed that she had ‘probably just pulled a muscle’ and advised her to rest. After following her doctor’s advice Morgan says the pain went away but returned again, alongside a ‘large bump’ in her chest, in April.
The grocery store worker visited the emergency room in June after she began experiencing chest pain and had difficulty breathing. Scans revealed that Morgan had two ‘large masses’ in her chest and she was sent for further testing.
The mum-of-three wasn’t given an official diagnosis until she was rushed to hospital on June 30 after the left side of her body swelled-up.
Doctors found that Morgan had six blood clots in the left side of her body and was given the ‘devastating’ diagnosis of stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
Morgan says it ‘felt like her world was ending’ when she received the diagnosis and she has since been receiving chemotherapy treatment. Morgan, from Las Vegas, Nevada, US, said: “I first started experiencing symptoms mid February 2025.
“I thought that I had pulled a muscle in my chest so I went to the doctor. I was at the gym and I felt it pull when I was doing chest flies so I just thought that I had hurt it that way.
“They [the doctor] didn’t do any imagining but they confirmed that it was probably just a pulled muscle and I needed to rest it and relax. It did get better but then at the end of April 2025 it happened again and there was a large bump.
“I waited a bit to go to the doctor to see if it would go away on its own and it didn’t. In June 2025 I ended up going to the emergency room because I was having chest pain and a hard time breathing.
“They did a CT scan and found that I had two large masses in my chest and nodules in each lung. “I had a brain MRI, a PET scan, a chest MRI and a chest biopsy of the actual cancer.
“Unfortunately after I had all of the testing done, my symptoms really ramped-up and I ended up having total left side swelling and I couldn’t use my left arm.
“I had to go to the emergency room and I had six blood clots on the left side of my body so I was hospitalised. That’s when I actually received my diagnosis and started chemotherapy in the hospital.”
Morgan, who has three young children at home, says she was ‘devastated’ when she received the stage-four blood cancer diagnosis.
Morgan said: “I definitely felt like my whole was ending. I have three kids at home so it was just so scary to know not only that I had cancer, but that I had stage four non-Hodgkin’s which doesn’t always have the best odds [of survival].
“I’d already been hospitalised with six blood clots and I was getting sicker by the day so it was just very devastating. I just felt like why is this happening to me.”
Morgan says she experienced several other symptoms in addition to what she thought was the pulled muscle, including skin itching and fatigue.
Morgan said: “I also had skin itching that would be worse when I got out of the shower and I was also extremely fatigued. There would be days when I would wake up, go to the gym, come home and have to take a three-hour nap because I was so exhausted. I was also getting an upset stomach quite often after I ate.”
Morgan is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment and has already completed six rounds since June. Morgan said: “I started chemo during that hospital stay [in June] and then I was able to leave the hospital after 10 days. I go to chemo every 21 days for three days.
“I just finished my sixth round of outpatient chemotherapy where I didn’t have to be hospitalised and then I have a PET scan coming up to see how my cancer is doing.
“The plan going forward is for me to go and do a couple rounds of inpatient chemotherapy where I would be in the hospital in isolation – I wouldn’t be able to see my kids or anything – for a week at a time. That will be every three weeks for probably two rounds.
“It’s been very isolating and very depressing because it’s almost like you’re watching everyone else live their life and you’re waiting to hope that you get to live yours.”
Morgan’s colleagues have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money as she is not able to work while battling the disease, which will help towards the cost of her treatment. So far, over $15,360 of the $50,00 target has been raised.
You can donate to Morgan’s GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-morgans-battle-with-lymphoma
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