Haelwyn Adams was 20 weeks pregnant when she keeled over during a routine scan. It was the moment her years of stomach pain were finally taken seriously, leading to a diagnosis of stage four colon cancer with a rare mutation that had already spread to her liver.
The 41-year-old and her partner Luke had already been through a traumatic journey to becoming parents, including miscarriages. Writing in The Times, she described how doctors gave her a choice: terminate the pregnancy to remove the tumour and start chemotherapy immediately, or continue and have surgeons remove as much of the primary tumour as possible while protecting the foetus.
The easiest decision ever
Haelwyn described it as "the easiest decision ever". She added: "I'm 41 years old and I'm dying. I don't know how long I've got - a week, a month, a year. Nobody is talking about a decade."
The mum-to-be experienced pain each time her unborn daughter kicked. Ultimately, the baby was delivered at 32 weeks because Haelwyn could scarcely breathe, with liver tumours pressing against her lower lung.
Years of dismissed symptoms
Their daughter, Magnolia Sunshine, was born and instantly separated from her mother so Haelwyn could begin treatment. For years, doctors had put her stomach pain down to severe period pain, IBS, stress, or - after she and Luke began IVF - hormonal side-effects, as she appeared young, fit and healthy.
Following one of her miscarriages, Haelwyn pushed for a colonoscopy to investigate the pain. However, a doctor insisted she was "simply too young to have colon cancer" and instead opted for a sigmoidography examining only the lower bowel.
Cancer returned
Haelwyn said: "From that moment, my days telescoped into a binary routine, by night, journeying into the natal intensive care unit to sit with my daughter, by day, journeying to the edge of my will to live. I had been willing to die for her, but living for her now seemed almost too hard."
The new mother was briefly cancer-free in January this year, hoping the super-aggressive chemotherapy had worked. However, the disease returned in March with tumours on both sides of her liver, and her treatment is now focused on management rather than a cure.
Marrying her partner
She and Luke married in June, in case she died during an operation to reverse the stoma from the colostomy she underwent during pregnancy. She added: "It's hard marrying someone to make them a widower but Luke is the love of my life, my person, my team-mate - and I know how strong he is."
Haelwyn and Luke have set up a JustGiving page, aiming to raise £150,000 to "protect my husband and little girl from the financial burden this disease leaves behind".
