Our boy wonder!
Baby joy for cancer survivor told she would never conceive
AFTER successfully battling teenage cancer, Amy White was told she would never have children.
The gruelling treatment she underwent to save her life when she was only 18 had destroyed one ovary and seriously damaged the other.
Doctors told her that even if, by a miracle, she got pregnant, her baby would most likely have Down’s syndrome or suffer from a growth disorder.
But nine years after she was diagnosed, 27-year-old Miss White proved the experts wrong by giving birth to a healthy baby son.
Kirk Grant Cherry weighed a healthy 7lb 11oz to the delight of his mother and father Campbell Cherry, 26.
Miss White, a doctor’s receptionist said: ‘I never tried to have a baby, because I thought I was infertile. I had been told I couldn’t have children.
‘When I was three or four weeks pregnant, I didn’t know why I was so lethargic and unwell. I went to see my consultant because I thought the cancer had come back.
‘I was given a chest X-ray and an MRI scan, before realising I was expecting a baby. Despite everything, he is perfectly healthy and I am so lucky.’
Miss White, from Glenburn, near Paisley, in Renfrewshire, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in 2007.
Doctors initially thought she was suffering from an eating disorder and sent her for counselling after her weight dropped from eight stones to just over five in less than a year.
Eventually, an MRI scan revealed a tumour on her hip. The former dance student was told she had a 15 per cent chance of survival, but the odds would be raised to 65 per cent if she entered a drugs trial.
Over eight months she underwent 14 types of chemotherapy for five days every three weeks. Then came surgery to remove nerves, followed by six weeks of radiotherapy and more chemotherapy.
Three years later, having bravely fought off the cancer, she was given the news that she would never be a mother.
Miss White said: ‘I was told if I fell pregnant there was a high chance the baby would have Down’s syndrome or a growth syndrome. But the doctor said I didn’t need to worry about any of that as he didn’t believe I would ever fall pregnant.’
When she found out that the doctors were wrong, she was worried for her baby’s health. She needed a scan every two weeks to check on him in the womb. Kirk was delivered two weeks early, on January 6.
His mother said: ‘To have a child was very emotional. As long as he is happy and healthy, I don’t care about anything else.’