Everything in Jane Heffey's life seemed to be perfect. She had a career, a partner, a house, a daughter, and she was 20 weeks pregnant with her second child. And then, she started bleeding heavily and worried there might be something wrong with her baby. But she was shocked when she found out there was actually something wrong with her. Cancer to be exact. After a thorough examination, she was told she had a 9-centimeter tumor on her cervix and that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and possibly her bladder too.
Understandably, Heffey's world came crashing down.
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Doctors told her she had two options: aborting her baby so she could start intensive treatment immediately or go ahead and keep her baby, get chemotherapy while still pregnant and live with the effects it could have on her child. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to make that decision, but not for Heffrey.
"Just one word could have ended Ciara's life, but there's no way on earth I would have done that. Not when she's the one who had saved my life," Heffrey said to the U.K. Daily Mail.
And that's because she's convinced that if it hadn't been for her pregnancy, she probably wouldn't have found out she had a tumor. The heavy bleeding she experienced, which sent her to the hospital at 20 weeks, was caused by the pressure her growing baby was putting on her cervix where the tumor was located.
So Heffrey went ahead with the chemotherapy while pregnant and when her daughter Ciara was born at 32 weeks, she was delighted to hear that she was perfectly healthy. Heffrey continued with another round of chemotherapy and even though her tumor has disappeared, she still needs radiotherapy and additional chemotherapy. But I bet not a day goes by that this strong woman doesn't look at her baby and thanks her for saving her life. I can only hope Heffrey continues to get better and her two little girls get to enjoy her for a very long time!
Image via Kingray/flickr
