Mum delays chemo to save her baby boy
Cancer Scot risked life for sake of son
A CANCER-stricken student put off having chemotherapy because she was pregnant with a “miracle” baby.
Abbie Colvin, 20, found out she was expecting shortly after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
She turned down chemo until her son Oscar was born in December. And despite fighting cancer and looking after a baby, she has managed to achieve top exam results in biomedical science.
Abbie, of Glasgow, is now on her third round of chemotherapy and she has transferred to a seven-year course, which will include a PhD in medicine.
She said: “I’ve raised a seriously happy and healthy baby, had three rounds of chemo and still got a first. Not to blow my own trumpet, but I am proud.
“Oscar is a miracle. It’s like it was meant to be.
“He came just at the right time – exactly when I needed him.
“I’m booked in to have a hysterectomy if my next scan doesn’t come back clear later this month. But if I’m not able to have any more children, I don’t mind because I have Oscar.”
In September 2016, Abbie, then just 19, went for screening at a sexual health clinic after suffering pain and bleeding.
Abnormal cells were found on her cervix and she was told she needed laser treatment and may need a hysterectomy, putting an end to her dreams of one day becoming a mum.
After struggling to come to terms with the fact she may never have a baby, Abbie had a urine test done before treatment started and found out she was already pregnant.
It was a major shock as she had only been with her partner Oakley Buchanan, 21, for two months and she had been on the pill.
Abbie was determined her cancer wouldn’t get in the way of the pregnancy – or her studies.
She said: “When the doctors said I was pregnant, I was absolutely ecstatic.
“I’d only recently been told that I’d never be able to have my own children, so I absolutely had to keep him. When Oscar was born, it was magical – like a miracle.” Aspiring doctor Abbie started chemotherapy two weeks after Oscar was born.
The student, who is studying at Manchester Metropolitan University and living in Poulton, Lancashire, is now keen to urge other women not to delay in getting checked out if they suspect something is wrong with their health.
She said: “If I hadn’t kept going to the doctors and gone for my sexual health screening, I still wouldn’t know I had cancer.
“That one test saved my life.”