Teencancer led to love ...and our miracle baby
Couple feared chemo ruled out a family, then along came little Willow
weren’t working. I had a burning sensation in them – the tumour was pressing on my spinal cord.”
Chris had surgery that night, with a second operation to remove a blood clot pressing on his spine days later.
He continues: “I was paralysed from the waist down. I just remember thinking ‘This is the end of my sporting career’.
“My surgeon came in and said, ‘I’m sorry, it is cancer’. I asked, ‘Am I going to die’? As they transferred me to another hospital for chemo, one of the first things they said was, ‘If you want, we can freeze some sperm’.
“But I was 17, I couldn’t move or get out of bed and I didn’t know if I was going to survive the chemo. So I said, ‘No, I’ll worry about that later on’.
“Over the months that followed I went from a wheelchair to walking on crutches. Then my
parents took me on holiday and my dad found a hiking stick in a shop and said, ‘Give this a go’. I never looked back.”
Before her cancer, Laura did gymnastics and represented her county at dancing.
Recalling her diagnosis, she says: “Doctors took a routine blood test, thinking I had anaemia. They rang the next day and told my mum, ‘We think Laura has leukaemia, can you get to the RVI hospital in Newcastle as soon as you can’. The following morning I started 2½ years of chemotherapy. I would have admissions with constant infections. There was constant pain, tiredness, it was so draining.
“The RVI were amazing. I went from 9st to 5st and in a wheelchair as it left me with osteonecrosis. I have holes inside my bones and will need hip replacements eventually.”
While Chris still has annual scans, Laura has been given the all-clear.
Their rollercoaster journey has brought them a group of treasured friends, who they met at other cancer survivor events. They include Lucy and Adam Anderson-Woods – among a group of pals dubbed “the cancer crew”. Lucy, 30, of
Telford, Shrops, was diagnosed with leukaemia at 14, while NHS admin worker and counsellor Adam, also 30, had testicular cancer at the age of 21.
They married in 2019 and, like Chris and Laura, they also credit the Youth Cancer Trust with helping them.
Laura adds: “Our cancer crew is our extended family and so we have made them honorary godparents. We call them Willow’s aunties and uncles – and they all absolutely adore her.”