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Oh baby!

I feared th worse but got a welcome surprise...


Published by: Amy thompson
Published on: 26th May 2011

They say lightning never strikes twice. But cancer is a different matter altogether.
I was only 13 when my dad Leroy died from pancreatic cancer. Then both my sisters, Linda, 49, and Tracy, 39, died from breast cancer.
And now, sitting opposite my doctor, I was hearing that dreaded word yet again... ‘You have skin cancer,’ he said gravely. ‘We’ll have to operate to remove the melanoma in your arm and give you a chemotherapy-based drug.’
I was speechless. I’d only bumped my arm on the door a few weeks ago, and I had thought the blood-blister that had formed would heal by itself. When it hadn’t, I’d gone to my GP. Never in a million years had I expected this.
‘I’m afraid the treatment will leave you infertile, too,’ added the doctor.
Luckily, me and my hubby David, 49, already had four beautiful girls, Dominique, 22, Carrarah, 16, Montanna, 13, and Kieanna, 11. But telling them was the hardest part.
Montanna burst into tears. ‘Are
you going to die,’ she sobbed.
‘No,’ I gasped, hugging her. ‘The doctors are going to make me better.’
I was right, too. I was left with a 10in scar on my arm and had to endure five weeks of treatment which brought down the chances of the cancer returning to 22 per cent.
Almost a year later, I was back on my feet, lugging furniture around as me and David had a new kitchen fitted. ‘Be careful with that,’ David said.
‘It’s fine,’ I smiled.
Famous last words...  Over the next few nights, an aching pain in my back and side kept me awake.
‘I’ll go and see the doctor,’ I grimaced. He referred me for a scan.
As the specialist ran an ultrasound wand over my belly, she frowned. ‘I can’t see your right ovary,’ she said. ‘There’s a mass in front of it…’ A mass?
Then she turned to me, her face serious. Oh God, the cancer’s back!
‘You’re five months pregnant…’ she started.
I was gobsmacked. ‘But my cancer treatment left me infertile!’ I spluttered.
She showed me my baby on screen. ‘Not according to this,’ she smiled. 
David and the girls were stunned, but thrilled. When baby Riley was born last December, he was beautiful. Now, he’s five months old and I still can’t believe I beat the odds!
The disease may have struck my family so many times, but Riley’s proof that there’s life after cancer. 
Michelle Deacon, 43, Cardiff, South Glamorgan