Brave mum loses cancer battle after two years
FAMILY LEFT DEVASTATED BY DEATH OF DEVOTED 28-YEAR-OLD
A MUM who lost her baby after being diagnosed with cancer while pregnant has died following a twoyear battle, leaving behind three children.
Jamie-Lee Waddle suffered “one devastating blow after another” since first being diagnosed in May 2019.
The Blyth mum was expecting her fourth child when she was first told she had secondary breast cancer.
In order for her to start treatment, Jamie-Lee’s son James had to be delivered at 22 weeks – but survived for just two hours.
The tragedy was a devastating blow to Jamie-Lee and her husband Connor but she continued to battle the disease for almost two years.
In April last year we reported how she was reunited with her children after being in isolation on a cancer ward amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jamie-Lee continued with her treatment, but in January a scan confirmed that the cancer had spread to her brain, liver and lungs.
Her condition deteriorated dramatically over the next few weeks, and she died at home on February 4, aged just 28.
“It just happened so fast, so soon,” said Jamie-Lee’s aunt, Jo Hankinson.
“She didn’t have a chance to sort things out, which she wanted to do.
“Ever since she was diagnosed she just had one massive blow after another.”
Doctors initially thought JamieLee had primary breast cancer when she was diagnosed in 2019.
Nursing assistant Jo, who helped care for Jamie-Lee during her illness, said: “She had hoped with treatment, she would have a beautiful new baby boy and be cancerfree within a year.
“But they started doing more investigation and found it was secondary, incurable breast cancer.
“In order for her to start treatment she couldn’t be pregnant, so they had to deliver James at 22 weeks and he survived for two hours.
“It was a massive loss for her and Connor.”
Jamie-Lee started chemotherapy but endured many more obstacles along her journey, contracting lifethreatening sepsis at one point and being hospitalised with pneumonia in October last year. Jo, 46, said: “It was touch-and-go at that point. The main thing was to try and get her out to be with the kids for Christmas.
“They let her out on December 23 and she made as much of a big deal for Christmas as she could, but she was just not very well at all.” After Christmas, Jamie-Lee was hospitalised again and a full body scan confirmed that the cancer had spread to her brain, liver and lungs. “Her consultant said it was one of the worst brain scans he’d seen in his career,” Jo said.
“I went over when she got back home thinking I was going to help out, not realising she was bedbound at that point. I didn’t realise how poorly she was compared with the week before. “I was there every day until her GP explained that she had days left.” Jamie-Lee passed away on February 4, leaving her family heartbroken.
Jo has since started an online fundraising page for her niece’s children – Grace, nine, Jack, seven, and four-year-old Phoebe.
She said: “The reason I decided to try to raise money is because of a conversation we had about all these places she wanted to take the kids to make memories for them, but because of Covid-19 and ill health, she didn’t get round to many of them.
“We thought it would be a wonderful tribute to Jamie-Lee if we could help raise some money for Grace, Jack and Phoebe to have experiences in their mother’s memory.
“As the amount donated gets higher, a lot of it will be put away for them as well.”
Paying tribute to her niece, Jo said: “Jamie-Lee was always about hope and fighting the fight.
“She was a vivacious personality and had a bit of a dark sense of humour.
“She was also a fantastic mother, 100% devoted to her children.
“She fought tremendously hard with courage, positivity, dignity and strength until the very end.”