A 29-year-old woman who was 32 weeks pregnant thought she was getting breathless because her baby was pushing on her lungs, until a scan found a one-in-a-million 'mass' near her heart. Paige Lloyd was just two months from giving birth when she told her doctor about worsening breathlessness and pain stretching from her chest towards her shoulder.
She assumed it was a normal symptom of late pregnancy, believing her growing baby girl was pushing upwards and making it harder to breathe, but a CT scan revealed a worrying mass in her chest, close to her heart. Paige was diagnosed with thymoma cancer type B3, a condition seen in only one in a million people.
Diagnosis shock after IVF journey
“I instantly broke down crying,” said Paige, a support worker from Bolton. “I said that I didn’t care what they did to me and begged them to make sure my baby survived. The thought of something happening to the baby was honestly worse than anything they could have told me about myself.”
“When I had the biopsy, I went in on my own and I remember feeling so lonely and absolutely terrified. The only thing that got me through it was her kicking away in my stomach. Every time I felt her move, it was like a little bit of reassurance that she was still there and she was okay. Nothing else mattered to me other than knowing she was going to be OK. I never in a million years thought they were going to tell me I had cancer. It hadn’t even crossed my mind.”
“I thought as she was growing, everything was being pushed upwards and she must have been pressing on something that was making me feel short of breath. Little did I know, she was actually pressing against a tumour in my chest that was right by my heart. The shortness of breath then went away, so I didn’t really think much more of it. A few weeks later it came back, but this time it came back with a pain that seemed to go from my heart right up to the tip of my shoulder. It kind of felt like I had a bit of a stiff neck too. I just spoke to my consultant my my 32 week scan about the shortness of breath.”
She says the diagnosis came as a devastating shock after she and partner Richard, 34, had spent four years trying to become parents through IVF. Doctors told Paige that her baby would be fine but that they might need to deliver her slightly early so she could begin aggressive chemotherapy.
Early birth and chemotherapy
Riven-Leigh was born by C-section in December 2025, three weeks before her due date, weighing 6lb 3oz. Paige had hoped for a natural birth but doctors were concerned about the possibility of complications during labour and the availability of a heart specialist.
She said: “It was amazing, although it wasn’t the birth I wanted. I wanted a natural labour but I just wanted her here safely and I didn’t want anything to happen to me during the birth. I got to hold her while they stitched me up and did skin to skin. I struggled because I wanted to breastfeed and it felt like an important part of my motherhood journey but I needed seven weeks to recover and chemotherapy so that was taken away.”
Paige went on to have five rounds of chemotherapy, starting in January this year. In May, she underwent major surgery to remove the tumour. Doctors discovered that it was wrapped around blood vessels close to her heart. Although they believed they had removed the tumour, Paige's pathology later showed a 'microscopic positive margin'. She needed further treatment and has now started daily proton beam therapy, with her fifth session taking place this week.
Complications and recovery
Her surgery was followed by a series of life-threatening complications. After the breathing tube was removed in recovery, one of the stitches on a blood vessel ruptured, causing internal bleeding. Paige went into cardiac arrest and her left lung collapsed. She also suffered partial paralysis of her vocal cords and developed blood clots in her upper chest. She required further surgery to remove fluid from around her lung and help it inflate again.
Paige spent six days in intensive care and continues to experience breathlessness and pain while her lung recovers. She has also been left with nerve damage and says her vocal cords may not recover fully. Paige said: “I developed PTSD from what happened and I’m now having therapy to try and deal with that. When I first came out of hospital, I really struggled to sleep. I was frightened to even close my eyes because when I did, I could see things from the operating room. My heart is no longer sitting inside the pericardium and is at a slightly different angle than it was before. And there’s still no certainty that my lung will ever get back to the strength or function it had before.”
Despite everything she’s endured, Paige says her daughter has given her a reason to keep going. She said: “There have definitely been times physically where I’ve struggled and haven’t been able to do everything with her that I wanted to, especially after surgery with my breathing and lung problems. I felt like my baby had spent more time in hospitals and surrounded by health professionals than she had at baby classes, sensory groups or doing what babies should be doing. No matter what I’m dealing with medically, to Riven-Leigh I’m just her mum. She doesn’t know what’s going on around her, she just wants me, and in a strange way that’s given me a bit of normality through everything.”
Fear and making memories
Paige says there is always a possibility her cancer could return, and says that fear is something she will have to learn to live with. But for now, she is focused on recovering and making memories with her daughter.
Paige added: “My hope for the future is honestly just to live a happy, healthy life and make as many memories as I possibly can with Riven-Leigh. Going through cancer has completely changed my outlook on life and humbled me massively. Things I used to stress about just don’t seem as important anymore, and I’ve learned to appreciate the simple, everyday things so much more. Obviously, my biggest fear is the cancer coming back, but more than anything, it’s the thought of not being here to watch my daughter grow up. She’s been my reason for fighting through all of this. I don’t try to look too far into the future anymore. I just want to take every day as it comes, enjoy my life, watch my little girl grow up and make as many memories with her as I possibly can. I just want to be here, watch Riven-Leigh grow up and make as many memories with her as I possibly can.”
