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Mum's praise for lifeline support centre following shock cancer diagnosis shortly after giving birth to her son

- GRETA SIMPSON

CHRISTMAS can be a challenging time for many. Whether it's money worries, panic shopping, or the social marathon of family dos and work parties, this time of year can bring a lot of baggage with it.

Zara McCormick knows that all too well. She said: "There's all these expectations...you've got to be happy, celebrating, there's all these events to go to, all this food and drink.

"It's hard enough. But when you're ill, it makes all those ordinary challenges even more heightened." Zara was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the beginning of 2023. Her husband Paul hadn't noticed anything untoward at first.

"She'd recently given birth to our son, Lewis, and she was getting more and more tired and out of breath, just from walking or going up the stairs.

"I assumed it was a lack of fitness; she'd just had nine months of not doing very much." Zara went to hospital for blood tests and further scans. "She rang me in tears, saying I've seen something on the screen, there's something in my bowel," said Paul.

"She was uncontrollably crying on the phone: 'I don't know what it is, but I think I've got cancer.

"We felt like we'd been hit by a ton of bricks. I remember sitting outside Tesco, and Zara saying to me, whatever happens, I've got life insurance so you'll be set. I remember thinking, we should not be having these conversations. It was awful." Thankfully, an immunotherapy trial at the Christie Hospital in Withington proved so effective that surgeons found little other than

CHRISTMAS can be a challenging time for many. Whether it's money worries, panic shopping, or the social marathon of family dos and work parties, this time of year can bring a lot of baggage with it.