JULY: Family trip made me forget brain tumours

ADELE KINGStoN, 44, a former council worker, lives in Doncaster with husband Shaun, 41, an electrician, and sons Jack, 16, and Harvey, ten. Adele was diagnosed with breast cancer five days before Harvey was born in 2008. She now has cancer in the brain. In July she finally felt well enough to go on a family holiday paid for by fundraisers.

ADELE SAYS: The holiday was a really significant point. I’d wanted to take the boys to Orlando but I wasn’t strong enough as there would be lots of walking.

To travel to Mexico and have a relaxing family holi-day was amazing. Watching my boys splashing around in the pool, I felt such joy.

Three weeks after finding a lump during my preg-nancy, I had surgery, then chemotherapy and Hercep-tin. The treatment was really tough with a newborn baby to look after.

I’d just finished the Her-ceptin when doctors found a brain tumour in 2011. The following year, there were four; there are now nine.

The cancer was also in my lung and left breast and I went on a drug trial in 2013 — I’d been given three to six months to live, and possibly 18 months with the trial. That was four years ago.

The brain tumours have remained, but are stable. I’ve seen milestones I never thought possible: Harvey starting his first day at school and Jack passing all his GCSEs. I’m determined to keep fighting.

Friends and family in our village raised the money for the holiday as a surprise — we would never have been able to afford it otherwise. In Mexico I allowed myself to forget I had cancer. We’re all still buzzing, even now.