What would you do if you were made to choose between declining having life-saving treatment in order to save your unborn child or terminating your pregnancy?
It may seem difficult, but for selfless mums like 33-year-old Tasha Trafford the decision came easily. Anything that would put her baby at risk was simply “unthinkable.”
“Doing anything that might harm my unborn baby would be unthinkable,” she stressed in a past interview with the Independent.
She was first diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare brain cancer, four years prior to her pregnancy. Though doctors first described the cancer as “incurable,” Trafford had three embryos frozen, hoping she would be well enough to have kids one day. When she was cleared of cancer two years after she was first diagnosed, she underwent implantation. She got pregnant on the first try.
PHOTO: FACEBOOK / NATASHA TRAFFORD
The registered nurse recalled how she had been told that her cancer had recurred when she was 16 weeks along.
Tasha’s father Dai shared with the Independent how much his daughter was looking forward to seeing her baby boy Cooper turn a year old, but she died just a month before his first birthday last November 2016.
“She knew what was happening but we didn’t speak about it much. It was a really long illness and was incredibly hard for Tasha,” he said in an interview.
What is Ewing Sarcoma?
Ewing sarcoma is a type of tumour usually found in the bone or soft tissue. It first appears as swelling and pain on the area of the tumour, which can occur in the bones of the arms, legs, feet, hands, pelvis, spine, chest, and skull.
A lump that may feel soft or warm can also warrant a visit to the doctor to rule out the possibility of this cancer. Other symptoms include fever or a bone breaks for no obvious reasons.
A biopsy is usually done to diagnose the condition, but other tests, like MRI scans, can also confirm the condition.
This type of cancer is more common in adolescents and young adults.
*This article is from our archives.
READ: Singapore mum fought cancer during pregnancy to save her baby
