5. TUMOUR REMOVED

Newlywed Olivia was just 29 when cancer threatened her dream of a family. But remarkably she never stopped smiling – or hoping

BY THE end of January, I was due to start my ‘chemotherapy sandwich’ — six weeks of chemo, five weeks of radiotherapy and another six weeks of chemotherapy.

Yet, as was becoming all too common, fate had other plans. Four days into treatment, I started to feel terribly ill and was once more rushed into hospital, where I discovered the sepsis had returned.

It meant treatment would have to stop while they fought the infection. I was so upset — every time I tried to make plans, life was throwing me a curveball. There was one chink of light: while my tumour was large, my consultant said they were prepared to try to remove some of it through surgery.

If it was successful they could possibly fix my colostomy at the same time and turn it into an ileostomy — which meant that down the line I could have surgery to reverse it.

It was a risk, but one I was prepared to take. The surgery took place on February 5 and, when I woke after nine hours, it was to the news I’d been praying for: doctors had managed to remove the entire tumour and perform the ileostomy.

I was delighted. Finally, it felt like my luck might be turning.