A pregnant mother was forced to start chemotherapy 11 weeks into her pregnancy after she got diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma while pregnant with her third child.
29-year-old Roberta Burton is a nursing assistant from Sheffield, England, who was left devastated after doctors told her she had cancer while carrying her third child.
After receiving the dire diagnosis at 11 weeks pregnant, Burton was forced to make a painful decision to undergo chemotherapy in an attempt to stay alive so that her other two children wouldn’t lose their mom.
“When I was going for the tests I’d been doing a bit of research into the symptoms. It was confusing as some of them could have easily been hormonal and pregnancy related, but I knew it wasn’t good. So while it was still a massive shock to hear I had cancer, I partly expected it,” Burton recalled.
“It was such a difficult decision to make. I’d longed for a third child, but I was terrified the treatment would cause him harm. But then not doing anything risked me not being there for my two other children.
“Scans showed the cancer had spread to my chest, so I needed to act quickly to ensure I wasn’t going to leave it too late.”
Eventually, the mother made the difficult decision to complete eight rounds of chemotherapy in an attempt to stay alive for her children aged 3 and 5.
“It was so tough having chemo with the usual symptoms of pregnancy and looking after my two other boys doing the school run with Noah and chasing around after a toddler. But I just decided I wouldn’t mope around and had to get on with it. I had no other choice,” the 29-year-old added.
Fortunately, everything turned out okay when the mom gave birth to a healthy baby boy in December 2019. One year later, Burton is getting ready to celebrate the birthday of her little miracle.
“I look at him now about to turn one year old and can’t believe it. He really is my miracle boy. It’s incredible what the consultants were able to do to get him in my arms,” she said.
As the mother added, this year didn’t go as planned whereas her 3-year-old son got diagnosed with Autism and her marriage broke into pieces. Despite everything that had happened, however, she is “determined to celebrate Elias and his first birthday.”
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