Rare pregnancy nightmare SAMIE'S SHOCK CANCER BATTLE

She was overjoyed to be expecting – then doctors delivered devastating news

- Donna Fleming

It should have been one of the happiest days of Samie Johnson's life. Ten weeks into a pregnancy that she'd feared might never happen due to chronic health problems, such as endometriosis and rheumatoid arthritis, she was bubbling with excitement when she went for the first scan. “I was over the moon to be pregnant and I thought I could be having twins because I already looked about six months pregnant and I had really bad morning sickness,” she explains. “There are multiples in my family, so I went for the scan thinking I would be told it was twins or even triplets. Then the ultrasound tech looked at me and her face dropped.”

Samie, 27, was devastated to learn she had a molar pregnancy. This is a rare pregnancy complication in which the egg isn't fertilised properly and instead of an embryo forming, abnormal placental tissue grows.

“My whole world just shattered,” remembers Samie 18 months on.

Sadly, that was just the beginning of a series of traumas that upended Samie's life but have taught her to stand up for herself.

During a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to remove tissue from the uterus, she suffered a severe haemorrhage and needed an emergency transfusion.