Teenager makes amazing recovery from rare tumour
A TEENAGE girl diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer miraculously survived surgery to remove a football-sized tumour and a brutal course of drugs that could have caused more cancer.
Lauren Thomas was 15 when she started to have stomach pains and felt a lump in her abdomen.
In the space of a few hours after showing her mum, Lauren was diagnosed with one of the rarest childhood cancers in the UK.
Mum-of-three Sarah, 35, from Abertridwr, Caerphilly, said: “It felt like I had been hit by a train. “It kind of shook us, but didn’t shake Lauren. it She took it all in her stride. I think the main thing she was concerned about was losing her eyebrows.”
Lauren, now 16, was diagnosed with stage four ovarian dysgerminoma cancer and was admitted to the Teenage Cancer Trust ward at the University Hospital of Wales.
Sarah said: “From day one she wanted to crack on with chemotherapy and get the surgery done and get on with her life.”
Sarah said: “One of the drugs that Lauren received, called Bleomycin, was still being trialled. it was our seventh or eighth week at the hospital when the first round of drugs went up. And she’s been smiling ever since.”
The specialist told Lauren that the drug would affect her for the rest of her life. Sarah added: “It will stay with her now for the rest of her life, so alcohol will be a no. She also has liver problems and the Bleomycin causes problems with her lungs.
“She will always have to be careful with exercise and with any other additional operations.”
Doctors had to carry out a Hickman line operation on Lauren, which opens up a line through the body direct from above the heart to the shoulder area for the administration of drugs.
Sarah said: “It kind of finalised it. That was the moment we realised it was real. It wasn’t just people telling us Lauren had cancer, they were preparing now to make her quite poorly.”
With a Hickman line you cannot bathe and it has to be changed and cleaned regularly.
Despite maintaining an optimistic attitude throughout the treatment, there were dark moments.
Sarah said: “We had one day after her surgery, when she was very very poorly and they asked us to call the family.
“And I said ‘no, I’m not going to do that she’s going to be fine’.
“She was grey and all the doctors were coming in to see her. So lots of us thought that this was going to be the end. But 24 hours later she was sat in bed eating custard creams.”
After the rounds of chemotherapy the tumour volume was reduced and surgeons were able to remove it on February 16 in a six-hour long operation.
Sarah said: “The cancer had spread into the surround lymph nodes and into her uterus, they didn’t just remove the tumour but the lymph nodes and part of her uterus.
She added: “You love your children, but when something like this happens you do admire them,
“She is everything I would ever hope to be. She is fantastic and she has been my rock, and she still is. She’s an absolute star.”
Lauren will now continue to have regular tests for years.
Lauren’s head of year, school teacher David Satterly was due to race along the 70-mile Velothon course in Cardiff last Sunday to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust after being inspired by his pupil’s story.
David, 52, from Danescourt, Cardiff, said: “I’ve been totally inspired by Lauren and I also appreciate the things teenage Cancer trust has done for her.”
Donations can be made at http://uk.virgin moneygiving.com/ DavidSatterly