A WOMAN diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour when she was 20 weeks pregnant is celebrating after being told her tumour is stable only weeks after undergoing her second round of radiotherapy.
Laura Elizabeth Mahon, 31, originally from Warrington, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumour in September 2021.
Laura and her husband, Danny first realised something was wrong when she woke up at 20 weeks pregnant and couldn’t move her toes.
Doctors originally believed the baby was pressing on a nerve but she was sent to The Walton Centre for an MRI scan – which led to the discovery of the tumour.
Laura became very unwell when she was 27 weeks pregnant.
She and her husband Danny, 29, made the “toughest decision of their lives” and opted to bring their daughter into the world at 30 weeks.
On 30 November 2021, Sienna Grace Laura Mahon was born, weighing just 3.4lbs, at Warrington Hospital.
She was told that she should not expect to outlive a year from her initial diagnosis, and has had plenty of setbacks, but Pride of St Helens Courage Award winner Laura wouldn’t accept that and 30 months on is still fighting, having celebrated Sienna's second birthday in November.
She had been undergoing constant chemotherapy since then, however in January she was told that the cancer was progressing, meaning the chemotherapy had stopped working – leaving her with only one choice – to undergo a second, dangerous round of radiotherapy with a 50/50 chance of stabilising the disease.
She completed the course in February and on Friday, April 5, got the unthinkable news that her scan showed no active cancer cells – her tumour is stable.
She said: “I will never be cured, I know that. But in January we were told to go home and get our affairs in order.
“It was the worst news, no other options but radiotherapy were offered to us and we knew it had a 50/50 chance.
“It’s been really hard, last time I had radiotherapy was shortly after having Sienna and then they gave me a year to live.
“30 months on to get the news that it's stable is the best possible news we can get and I’m so happy.
“The week after I finished radiotherapy, I ended up in hospital for a week with radiotherapy side effects, sickness and I caught an infection. I spent a week in Clatterbridge recovering.
“The past six weeks have been spent recovering at home and trying to build up strength and now the new plan is to stay off chemo whilst it’s not active and I’ll be scanned in a few weeks time again to see if anything has changed.
“We have a few nice things planned for the next few weeks, it’s my birthday in May and were hoping to go away.”
Laura’s focus is making more memories with Sienna and Danny and living every day to the fullest.
She added: “I’m so grateful for all the love and support we receive from everyone and it’s amazing how many people have reached out to us.
“We just celebrate every day, see the joy in every day and there’s nothing positive about this diagnosis but that mindset at least to try to find the positives is something we’ve learned from this. Don’t take anything for granted.”
Laura documents her journey via her Instagram and TikTok accounts via @lauradowntherabbithole
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