Jess Hardiman
A pregnant woman who was told she had just ‘one year to live’ after being diagnosed with a brain tumour has vowed to 'fight again' as she continues treatment, saying she feels like she's on 'borrowed time'.
Laura Mahon was 20 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered she had a tumour on her brain in 2021.
She initially thought she was experiencing fairly common pregnancy side effects, such as headaches and sensitivities, but felt concerned when she woke up one morning to find she couldn’t move her foot.
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At first, doctors wondered if her unborn baby might have been lying on a nerve on her spine, but a scan came back normal.
Laura was then sent to a neurological hospital for another scan of her brain, which was when she was delivered the heartbreaking news.
She was told she would have just ‘one year to live’, with her and husband Danny left with no choice but to ‘watch and wait’ as treatment couldn't start until she gave birth.
In a GoFundMe raising money for alternative treatments – and for Laura to ‘enjoy making memories’ - she recalled how her cancer began to spread and that by 27 weeks she began to lose feeling in her right arm.
At 30 weeks, she gave birth to daughter Sienna via c-section, with the infant weighing just 3.4lbs.
“I was due for brain surgery at the Walton Centre in Liverpool on 10th December 2021, I’d had another MRI scan that day with contrast dye and this had shown that the tumour had grown a large amount and it was inoperable due to location and growth,” Laura explained.
“Instead they could only do a biopsy and remove around 10/15% of it.
“I was told two days before Christmas it was a grade 4 brain tumour and was highly aggressive. Even with treatment we were looking at around one year to live.”
Brave Laura has been sharing her journey on Instagram and TikTok, saying she is now living on ‘borrowed time’, which she feels is a ‘very strange way to live’.
“I thought I’d be around for maybe a year but I’m still here documenting this journey all the highs and lows and I will be until the bitter end,” she said defiantly in a post last October.
Earlier this month – 28 months on from her diagnosis – Laura said she has had ‘brain surgery, radiotherapy and done 18 months of chemotherapy’ as part of her treatment, saying there have been ‘plenty of highs and lots of lows’.
“But today was probably the lowest of lows,” she said.
“Chemotherapy has stopped working. My tumour is spreading across my brain. And there’s not many options left anymore.”
Laura said she would undergo radiotherapy again to ‘try and slow the growth’, and that she felt ‘ready to fight again’.
The mum-of-one returned to The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool last week for ‘radiotherapy part 2’, saying it felt like she was ‘back at square one’.
“I’m not gonna lie I’m very nervous,” she admitted. "I’m very scared of what’s to come.
“But I’ve done this once before and I can certainly do it again.”
To donate to Laura's GoFundMe page, click here.