"Finding out I had breast cancer when I was 8 weeks pregnant was a curve ball I didn’t see coming.
I was 32, fit and healthy, and recently married. Everything was in front of me, then suddenly, there was a huge question mark over my future, and the little one inside me. I remember wondering: am I even going to be around to meet this baby at the end of my pregnancy?
One of the hardest parts of those earliest days was that I hadn’t told my extended family or even closest friends about the pregnancy – so we had to share both pieces of news at the same time.
The following months tested me beyond my limits, the uncertainty of every day always in the back of my mind. I remember Sunday being my favourite day of the week, it meant we were one week closer to meeting our baby boy and one more week of treatment completed.
What we didn’t expect was welcoming our baby boy, George, 10 weeks early. Suddenly we were navigating the NCCU and the Mater Cancer Care Clinic (MCCC).
Without the specialist teams caring for us at Mater, it would have been unbearable. My gratitude for the doctors, nurses and researchers at Mater can never be fully put into words. I shudder to think what the outcome for both George and myself would have been had I been diagnosed just 10 years earlier.
Too many families have experienced the unimaginable alternative because our researchers were still searching for the breakthroughs that saved my life. And even now, I am amongst the lucky ones.
There is still so much more to do to ensure more mothers get to experience the true gift of watching their children grow up. Supporting breast cancer research at Mater brings hope to mums like me."
Zoe – proud mum of George, and grateful cancer survivor.
