My unborn baby saved my life after doctors spotted cancer

Aug 31 2008 By Heather Greenaway

LITTLE Isaac Dewberry may be just nine months old but he has already given his mother the gift of life.

Mum Ann was on a routine visit to hospital while 30 weeks pregnant when doctors found she had a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

Had they not spotted the 14cm malignant tumour on her breast and sternum, she would not be alive today.

The devastating news came just two months before Isaac was born. Doctors told Ann she needed immediate treatment or she would die within four months.

Ann, 43, of Dunrossness, Shetland, had no option but to start chemotherapy while pregnant.

For eight weeks she went through hell, terrified about what the treatment might do to her unborn son.

But on November 5, 2007, perfectly healthy Isaac James came into the world by Caesarean, weighing 5lb 4oz.

Intensive care nurse Ann said: "Isaac saved my life. He saved me both mentally and physically and got me through the worst of the treatment. He's our little angel.

"If I had not been pregnant and travelling to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for a routine check-up I would not have been diagnosed in time and would not be alive.

"Isaac was not planned but he came along for a reason - to save me and get me through the darkest times."

In August last year Ann went to her local GP with what she thought was an abscess on her left breast.

Antibiotics failed to clear it, so while she was in Aberdeen for a baby scan, she made a surgical appointment to get it drained.

Ann - who also has children Joe, 12, and Neve, nine, with teacher husband Steve, 35 - said: "I was just so fortunate I was going down for a routine pregnancy scan and the surgical unit could fit me in for drainage.

"They took one look at me and sent me for an ultrasound.

"Even at that stage it did not occur to me there might be something sinister wrong.

"I had been checking myself regularly for lumps as my best friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I was being extra vigilant."

Doctors discovered Ann had inflammatory breast cancer, which makes up just two per cent of all cases.

She said: "The bottom fell out of my world. The medics told me my tumour had grown to 14cm in just seven weeks and I would not live until Christmas if I did not have immediate treatment.

"I started to panic - I worried my baby might be riddled with cancer but they reassured me he wasn't."

Chemotherapy is not as big a risk to a baby during the third trimester of pregnancy but Ann was still terrified about having it.

She said: "In a way I was lucky not to have found out earlier on in the pregnancy as they would have asked me about termination but at 30 weeks it was out of my hands. At that stage the drugs still pass across the placenta but there is a low risk of birth defects. Even that could not content me.

"I had two bouts of chemo before Isaac arrived and I worried every second about him until he was born.

"I got scanned every week so at least I knew he was growing. When he arrived safely we were over the moon.

"He only had to spend one night in intensive care before he moved to the special care unit.

"As far as we know he is perfectly healthy but we will have to wait until he is older to find out whether he will develop any problems."

Just 10 days after Isaac was born, Ann had more chemotherapy then a mastectomy in April.

She said: "I will not know until I've finished the treatment whether we have got all the cancer.

"I count every day as a blessing and I'm taking each day at a time. If something goes wrong I just have to deal with it."

In the last year, Ann - ward manager at the Gilbert Bain hospital - has made more than 20 400-mile trips for treatment to the Royal Infirmary.

She stays at the CLAN (Cancer Link Aberdeen North) centre, which she says has been a lifeline for herself and her family.

It offers support and palliative therapies to cancer sufferers from remote areas such as Shetland and Orkney.

Ann said: "We could not have functioned without the centre.

"The haven caters for the whole family which means I have been able to bring Isaac with me for all my treatments and Steve has also been able to stay with me.

"Everyone has their own family room, it does not have a hospital atmosphere and the staff are so friendly.

"It has been a Godsend for us all."

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h.greenaway@sundaymail.co.uk