ABERDEEN — Dr. Gavin Preston delivered the news on June 22 last year. He told Kayla Esson the cancer was gone. For a trainee ambulance technician from Buckie who arrived at hospital with a tumour pressing against her heart, that single sentence changed everything.
Preston, a consultant who treated Esson for primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma, had overseen six sessions of chemotherapy. The first began on March 12, 2025.
The rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma sits behind the breastbone, between the lungs. It is a difficult spot. The tumour was pressing against her heart when she was rushed in.
Esson, 22, marked one year in remission on Sunday by launching Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life in Aberdeen. She sounded the starter horn for roughly 1,100 participants.
The event raised more than £100,000 for cancer research. Routes of 3k, 5k and 10k were offered. “My first thought was, am I going to die?” Esson said.
“I wish I could have seen then where I am today. What a difference a year makes.” Her mother, Nicolle Beattie, ran both the 10k and the 5k in her daughter’s honour. Esson called it a proud moment to stand on the start line.
She said she is determined to pay it forward. The remission news did not come by phone.
Esson, who documented her cancer journey on Instagram and TikTok, visited her loved ones one by one. She told her gran in person. She told her best friends face to face.
The cancer had gone. In April this year, the Moray & Banffshire Heroes Awards named her Hero of Heroes.
Primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma is not common. It accounts for a small fraction of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases. Treatment typically involves intensive chemotherapy.
The location of the tumour — behind the breastbone, between the lungs — means it can press on vital structures. Esson’s was pressing on her heart when doctors found it. Six chemotherapy sessions later, the tumour was gone.
Preston gave the all-clear. Esson is a trainee ambulance technician.
She knows what emergency medicine looks like from the other side now. “I felt incredibly proud to stand on the start line to launch Race for Life,” she said. The £100,000 raised will go to scientists working on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
That is the purpose of the event. Participants ran and walked through Aberdeen on a Sunday morning in late June.
Beattie, her mother, finished both longer routes. She did it in her daughter’s honour. Esson watched.
A year ago, she was in an Aberdeen hospital room hearing she was in remission. Before that, she was asking herself whether she would survive. “I wish I could have seen then where I am today,” she said.
The Hero of Heroes award came in April. The Race for Life launch came on Sunday.
The cancer diagnosis came before all of it. Dr. Preston saw her through the treatment. The chemotherapy started on March 12, 2025.
It ended after six sessions. The remission was confirmed on June 22 last year.
Esson told her story online as it happened. Social media followers watched her go through chemotherapy. They watched her tell her gran the cancer was gone.
They watched her become a guest of honour at a Race for Life event. She is 22. She lives in Buckie, Moray.
She works as a trainee ambulance technician. She launched a race for more than 1,000 people on Sunday.
The money goes to cancer research.
