Kayla Esson was in a hospital room when the words hit her. Her consultant, Dr. Gavin Preston, told her the cancer was gone. She was 22 years old.
She had been in treatment for months. Now she had to figure out what to do with the news.
She went to her gran first. Then her best friends. One by one.
She told them the tumor that had been pressing against her heart was no longer a threat. She had documented everything on Instagram and TikTok.
The diagnosis. The fear. The chemo.
Now she documented the remission. A year earlier, her world had collapsed. Kayla was rushed to hospital in Aberdeen.
A tumor was found pressing against her heart. The diagnosis was primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma — a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that sits behind the breastbone, between the lungs.
She began her first round of chemotherapy on March 12, 2025. Six sessions total. Her first thought was blunt: Am I going to die?
She didn’t. On June 22, 2025, Dr. Preston told her she was in remission.
That was the day she went to her loved ones, one by one, to share the news. Now, a year later, Kayla stood on a start line in Aberdeen. Around her, 1,100 participants waited.
She sounded the starter horn for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life. The event offered 3k, 5k and 10k routes. More than £100,000 was raised.
The money goes to scientists working on prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Kayla lives in Buckie, Moray.
She works as a trainee ambulance technician. She was guest of honor at the event. Her mother, Nicolle Beattie, ran both the 10k and the 5k in her daughter’s honor.
“I felt incredibly proud to stand on the start line to launch Race for Life,” Kayla said. She talked about how her “world changed” after the diagnosis.
She said she wished she could have seen then where she is now. “What a difference a year makes,” she said. “I’m doing well now and I’m determined to pay it forward to help others.” In April this year, Kayla was named Hero of Heroes at the 2026 Moray & Banffshire Heroes Awards.
The award came less than a year after her remission. It recognized not just her survival but the way she shared her story. She used social media to document the entire journey.
The posts were raw. They showed the chemo.
The fear. The small victories. Her story is not just about a young woman who beat cancer.
It is about a young woman who took the worst thing that happened to her and turned it into something that helped others. She stood on that start line in Aberdeen and launched a race.
She sounded a horn. Around her, 1,100 people ran. They raised money.
They ran for themselves, for loved ones, for strangers. Kayla ran too. Not on the course, but through the crowd.
She was there. She was healthy.
She was a year into remission. She was the person who could say, yes, it happened to me, and yes, I am still here.
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