Bride-to-Be Diagnosed with Cancer Months Before Wedding (Exclusive)

• For more than a year, Crystal Mischley had been struggling with a series of troubling symptoms. It all started with itchy skin, initially misdiagnosed as scabies. Then, she developed a persistent cough
• The Michigan native knew something was seriously wrong, but without health insurance, accessing the medical care she needed was a constant struggle
• Then, the night before her bridal shower, set for June 4, 2023, her condition took a sharp turn for the worse

Crystal Mischley was 27 years old, happily engaged and in the midst of planning her wedding. With just three months left until her big day, she was still working about 50 hours a week nannying for two young children. Life seemed perfect.

However, for months, Mischley had been struggling with a series of troubling symptoms. It all started with itchy skin, initially misdiagnosed as scabies. Then, she developed a persistent cough, which doctors attempted to treat with two rounds of antibiotics. Along with that, she began experiencing night sweats, low-grade fevers, nausea and debilitating fatigue.

The Michigan native knew something was seriously wrong, but without health insurance, accessing the medical care she needed was a constant struggle.

Then, the night before her bridal shower, set for June 4, 2023, her condition took a sharp turn for the worse. She felt so sick with severe nausea, fever, cough and itchy skin that she considered canceling the event. But with family traveling in from out of town, she felt she had to go through with it. The next day, she threw on some makeup and did her best to enjoy the celebration, despite feeling miserable.

When she got home, she threw up and collapsed into bed, falling asleep around 5 p.m. The following morning, she went to urgent care, where doctors took an X-ray of her chest. It was the same day they discovered the cause of her symptoms: she had stage 3B Bulky Classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The largest tumor in her body measured 15.2 cm.

“The moment I was diagnosed was quite heartbreaking,” Mischley, now 28, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “After urgent care saw a large tumor on my chest X-ray, they sent me to the hospital. At the hospital, they reviewed the X-ray. It felt like a scene from a really sad movie. I was lying in a hospital bed with my [then] fiancé Matt by my side, and the doctor walked in and said, ‘I hate to be the one to tell you this … but this looks like cancer.’ ”

“Tears welled in my eyes, but I tried to stay strong. I asked the doctor, ‘Am I going to be okay?’ and he said, ‘You’ll need to go through more testing to confirm what type of cancer you have, but this appears to be a lymphoma, which is typically very curable.’ I was so scared, but relieved to hear there was a good chance I could beat this.”

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With only weeks left before her wedding day, Mischley began treatment. She started the standard regimen for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, AAVD — a six-month-long chemo protocol that is very hard on the body, which led to her autologous stem cell transplant.

She was informed that the chemo could affect her fertility, and since there wasn’t enough time to freeze her eggs, she was left feeling devastated; her dream was always to have a big family. However, she was able to pursue a newer procedure called ovarian tissue cryopreservation.

According to the National Cancer Institute, this process involves removing an entire ovary, which can later be reimplanted once she recovers, offering a good chance that her fertility might return.

“My stem cell transplant was the hardest thing, mentally and physically, that I have ever gone through,” she adds. “I struggled being away from my husband and dog for that long. I just kept telling myself, ‘These days are hard, but these are the days I have to get through.’ A cancer friend told me that was her motto during her hardest moments, and it became my motto as well.”

“The hair loss was also hard, but I was well prepared with fun wigs to wear,” she adds.

Not long after undergoing the stem cell transplant in July 2024, Mischley was told the treatment did not work as expected. Instead, she was found to be “chemo-resistant” or “refractory,” meaning the cancer did not respond to the first-line chemotherapy. This made her case more complicated.

After the first round of chemo failed, she was told she would need more chemo and another stem cell transplant, this time using donor cells. Knowing the process would be long and that she would only get sicker, with a low immune system and likely losing her hair in clumps, Mischley and Matt decided to postpone their wedding and elope.

“I was barely able to stand through the ceremony,” she recalls. “My sweet sister-in-law stood next to me with nausea meds and a puke bag on hand in case I needed it. The day that was originally supposed to be our ‘big wedding,’ I spent in bed recovering from chemo — which was really tough to swallow.”

“We rescheduled our ‘big wedding celebration’ for later in 2024, but then had to cancel that one too when the chemo didn’t work as planned,” she continues. “So, we canceled two weddings. At this point, we’ve had so many medical bills over the last few years that we do not have it in our budget to reschedule again.”

“My husband is my biggest cheerleader,” she adds. “He is always reminding me of how strong I am, and how he’s so proud of me. I couldn’t do this without him. I fight so hard, because I want to beat this and make more happy memories with him. We have so much fun together, no matter what we do.”

Currently, Mischley has been prepping for her second stem cell transplant, an allogeneic stem cell transplant, which uses cells from another person. The idea behind the allogeneic (allo) transplant is that the donor’s cells will hopefully fight off the lymphoma more effectively than her own cells have. She was very fortunate to match with an unrelated donor, a 27-year-old male, through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

However, as she continues to receive chemo and radiation while she waits for the transplant, recent results have not been great. The cancer has metastasized to her lungs. Her doctor started an aggressive chemo regimen called ICE and is hopeful that this will bring her into remission before her next stem cell transplant, which is tentatively planned for May.

To keep herself motivated during tough days, Mischley surrounds herself with friends and family. She also loves practicing self-care, and doing things like applying her makeup, getting a fresh pedicure to help lift her spirits and babysitting a 13-year-old, Eli, with leukemia.

“I started babysitting for her, thinking I could be a good role model or inspiration for her,” Mischley says. “But, in all honesty, it’s gone both ways. She handles her diagnosis with so much strength and grace at such a young age — it’s truly inspiring.”

“I think we really bonded when we first met and began talking about the chemos we had both been on,” she adds. “We found out we had both been on doxorubicin, a chemotherapy medication. She jokingly said, ‘We’re twins! Like, chemo twins!’ And we’ve joked about that ever since. She was also really excited to hear that I had a chest port — just like her.”

In addition, Mischley’s picked up some new hobbies — crafting, reading, and even making TikTok videos. She says she began posting on social media to raise awareness for lymphoma, never imagining that one of her videos would go viral. When she shared her story in January, it quickly amassed more than 10.2 million views and nearly 15,000 comments.

“I’ve had other young cancer fighters reach out and thank me for sharing my story, which has truly warmed my heart,” she says. “Someone recently messaged me to tell me that my videos made them feel less alone during their journey. I loved hearing that!”

“Now that I have this platform, my dream is to do good things with it,” she continues. “If I had known the signs of lymphoma, I would have gotten checked out so much sooner. I also hope to raise awareness for the NMDP and DKMS registries. Before I was diagnosed, I had no idea what a stem cell transplant was — and would have never known how easy it is to sign up to be a donor. It’s a simple cheek swab that you send back, and if you’re a match, you could save the life of someone like me by donating stem cells.”

“Life can be really tough sometimes; but despite the hard times, I’ve found so much joy in little moments these last two years,” she adds. “I’m so appreciative of the small things, laying on the couch with my husband watching a movie, taking our dog to the dog park, getting coffees with a friend. Little things mean so much to me.”