A woman has shared a warning after she found she was easily losing weight after giving birth—but something sinister was happening in her body.
Zoe Plastiras, 26, lives in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. In October 2022 she gave birth to a baby girl, now aged three.
She had some health issues during her pregnancy and at 34 weeks she found herself breathless and rushed to the hospital to get checked out.
That was where, she told Newsweek, “a chest X-ray revealed a mass on my chest that was 12 centimeters.”
Plastiras was still undergoing tests when she gave birth to her daughter, but until that point the breathlessness was her only symptom.
But, she said, “once I gave birth I lost weight and had itchy skin. But I was already being tested for lymphoma by this point.”
Almost three years on and following more than a year of treatment, Plastiras is in remission from lymphoma—the term for a group of blood cancers in the lymphatic system. Symptoms include swelling of the lymph nodes, fatigue, fever, night sweats, shortness of breath and unexplained weight loss, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Plastiras regularly shares the reality of life with lymphoma and her journey to her Instagram, @lymphomaawarenesszoe, and TikTok, @zoeplastiras. On April 4, she showcased how she was living with one of the major symptoms of lymphoma—without realizing what it meant.
In the clip, taken weeks after she gave birth and before she was diagnosed, Plastiras lifts her shirt, grinning, to show how her stomach has “gone down so much.”
She finishes the video with a “Yay,” beaming at the camera and giving the peace sign.
But as she wrote over the clip: “Me thinking I was a skinny legend three weeks post partum, but really I was [losing] weight cause I had cancer.”
Plastiras told Newsweek that she was officially diagnosed with lymphoma in December 2022, three months after finding the mass in her chest and two months after giving birth to her daughter.
But in good news, she added: “I’m in remission a year now, and recovered very well. CAR T cell therapy got me into remission [in] July 2024.”CA
CAR T cell therapy is a gene therapy that alters the genes in a type of white blood cell to help them attack cancer cells. T cells are taken from the patient’s blood and genetically altered in a lab before being returned to the patient’s blood, according to the American Cancer Society.
Plastiras recalled the frightening early days of her diagnosis, where she desperately searched for information online, finding videos from other people living with lymphoma or going through CAR T cell therapy.
“Social media was a huge positive impact on me as a diagnosed person. I just found the majority of what I was looking for in that moment because so many people like myself are open on their journeys,” she said.
And now she does the same for others, urging anyone who needs it “to follow my journey in remission, or if you’re newly diagnosed with blood cancer, my social media has a lot on it which can help with someone’s new journey.
“I did a lot of vlogs on TikTok, Especially on CAR T therapy.”
Plastiras’ Instagram video showing her unexpected weight loss had a big response, gaining close to 5,000 likes. People in similar situations shared their own stories, as one person wrote: “This was also me.”
“This was me, but not after having [a] baby. I started working out and I was like dam first time ever this has worked lol. Nope just cancer,” another said.
Another supported Plastiras: “I hate that for you, but I hope you’re getting through this as best you can. Still a legend!”
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