Cancer survivor tells 'TV IS SCARIER THAN TREATMENT!'

Janelle grabbed the chance to spend time with her son Liam

- Hayley Becht

Since new Kiwi reality show Ready Gamer Mum first loaded up on our screens, viewers have fallen in love with the heartwarming concept of mothers teaming up with their gaming-mad kids to compete for a $50,000 prize.

But for Palmerston North mum-and-son duo Janelle Wilson and Liam Craw, the show was about second chances and making every moment count.

Just a few years ago, Janelle, 50, was working gruelling 80-hour weeks as a midwife, juggling the pressures of caring for others, all while raising a busy blended family. Then her life changed in an instant.

“I started noticing that I couldn’t swallow food properly,” she recalls. “I went to the doctor and was told it was probably nothing, but I knew something wasn’t right.”

After seeking a private diagnosis, Janelle learned she had stage-four oesophageal cancer that had already spread to her stomach.

“It was terrifying,” she says. “I had chemotherapy, radiation and major surgery all within a very short period of time.”

During treatment, Janelle was unable to eat and relied on feeding tubes for nutrition. Meanwhile, her son Liam, now 24, was thousands of kilometres away in the US on a football scholarship, studying English and theatre.

“It was really hard knowing Mum was sick while I was overseas,” Liam admits. “But Mum kept saying, ‘What are you going to do if you come home?’ She didn’t want me giving up my future.”