Opportunity Two: Mom Celebrates Cancer Cancer By Posting Photos With Daughter

 Opportunity Two: Mom Celebrates Cancer Cancer By Posting Photos With Daughter

A mother who was diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy shows that she is clear about sending her three identical pictures with her daughter on her eight-year trip.

Roisin Pelan, 40, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 34 weeks pregnant with her first child.

Six days after the birth of her daughter, Ivy, she had her uterus removed and began to treat cancer with chemotherapy.

Although the cancer went away a year later, she came back in 2018 and doctors warned her she would not live for more than three years - but surprisingly, Pelan recovered in February.

Roisin Pelan, who was diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy, celebrated her absence from cancer by posting three identical pictures of her and her daughter on her eight-year trip. Michael Brown / Zenger

Now a mother of two and awaiting her marriage to her partner Michael Brown, 37, Pelan told her daughter, who was born days before the diagnosis, had never known life without her mother's cancer.

Pelan, of Preston, Lancashire, England, celebrated his explicit scan with a moving Facebook post showing three identical pictures of himself and his daughter during the eight years of cancer warfare.

The owner of an online business said: “The last eight years have undoubtedly been the most difficult years of my life, but also some of the best.

“Dealing with your mental health is the hardest part - trying to believe you have a future when you feel like you don't have it.

Roisin Pelan, who was diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy, celebrated her absence from cancer by posting three identical pictures of her and her daughter on her eight-year trip. Michael Brown / Zenger

"Cancer is my only daughter, and later my son, has known it. But a double cancer diagnosis makes you want to live your life.

"We are only here once and I have been given a second and third chance."

Pelan first noticed a lump in her left breast in May 2014 while breastfeeding to avoid stretching during her 34th week of pregnancy.

She visited a doctor to check the size of an olive tree, and ultrasound and biopsy tests revealed that she had breast cancer.

She and her boyfriend Michael were given options and chose to give birth to their daughter, whom they named Ivy, before having a womb.

Six days later, on June 6, Pelan underwent a six-month chemo procedure as he embarked on a complex process involving raising his daughter.

The year she was diagnosed, she took a photo with baby Ivy - which would be an emotional reminder of her long journey to cancer.

The new family was overjoyed to receive a definite scan in January 2015, and began the process of applying for a second child.

They believed that a second pregnancy would be in danger of developing cancer due to hormones, and in November 2017, they were finally approved to have them.

They plan to start the matching process in January 2018 - otherwise, things go downhill.

He said: “The days before I was three years old, I received another lump.

“I was talking to someone and I just felt it, and my stomach was shaking.

Roisin Pelan, who was diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy, celebrated her absence from cancer by posting three identical pictures of her and her daughter on her eight-year trip. Michael Brown / Zenger

“I knew right away that the cancer had returned. When I went for a scan, I could not even look at Ivy.

"I did not know what to put him in - usually in the event of a relapse, he would return with the latest stages."

A week later Pelan was back in the chemo chair and panicked as doctors informed him that it had spread across the original area, though not in another organ.

They warned him that he would probably live for only three years, and it was unlikely that he would undergo surgery.

He said: "I came out with no hope of survival. I thought I was dying, so it happened."

But after going to another hospital for a second opinion, different doctors agreed to proceed with aggressive chemo and radiotherapy to eradicate the cancer a second time.

In 2019, she still had a clear scan and was able to find her 9-month-old son - and she and Ivy soon became close friends.

Three years later, he proved the doctors wrong by conveying their three-year-old prediction - which he celebrated with a third photo similar to Ivy, who was about eight years old.

Although the first two photos of her cancer journey show her hairless because of chemo, in this year’s photo she is wearing the biggest smile as she plays head full of hair.

These three pictures serve as a reminder of how far she has come - the journey Ivy had traveled near her from the beginning.

He said: “Ivy knows words like chemotherapy, and she knows what CT scans and MRI scans are.

“At age seven, she should not know these things.

"I will be using chemo forever but it is our life now - it keeps me alive."

The story was shared with Newsweek by Zenger News.