Callum Jones
A mum who was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer just 11 weeks after welcoming a baby boy has been told the treatment that has kept her stable for the past year is no longer working.
But Fi Leyshon, 30, from Linthorpe, is determined to keep fighting for her little boy, Reuben.
As a first-time mum, Fi put down her exhaustion, sickness and pain in the four weeks surrounding her baby's birth as 'just motherhood'.
But when those symptoms continued, Fi knew something wasn't right so seeked medical assistance.
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Speaking to Teeside Live, she said: "There was one night where Reuben was 11-weeks-old and I was lying in bed with a really bad pain in my left side.
"I'm quite good with dealing with pain and just cracking on but something was telling me I needed to call 111."
She continued: "They thought I might have had kidney stones and they sent an ambulance because I had just had a baby and they wanted to be extra cautious. I was in the hospital for 12 hours and they took my bloods and did scans.
"I was on my own when the doctor came in and said they had the results to my scan and did I want to know now. I knew there was something not right and they told me it was cancer."
Following further scans, Fi began immunotherapy at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.
Since then the mum has remained stable, until some devastating news she received on Friday (30 June).
"To be honest I probably took it for granted a little bit - I thought this is it I'm stable, brilliant," she said.
"So when I got the news on Friday that it's stopped working and it's spread, it's just the worst case scenario."
Fi has now been told she has stage 4 incurable and inoperable metastatic renal carcinoma - with the cancer having spread to her liver and lymph nodes.
Her family are now exploring other treatment options away from the NHS, with over £7,000 raised for Fi in the last few days on a GoFundMe page.
Despite her devastating prognosis, Fi is planning to fight the disease with everything she has.
She said: "I'm going to keep fighting, we're looking for alternatives - even herbal remedies things like that - we're really doing our research. My sister-in-law, Adele Loughborough, has emailed different hospitals. I really am fighting.
"I'm not just leaving it at this new treatment - this isn't all or nothing. I'm going to see what else is out there. Despite everything, I still have hope. I'm just going to live each day with Reu and going about it as normal as I can."
In the meantime, Fi is encouraging others to listen to their body and head to the GP if they suspect anything is wrong.