I BATTLED CANCER WHILE PREGNANT

Every time Sophie Sutton, 34, looks at her son, she is so grateful they both made it

- SARAH WHITELEY

Crawling into bed, I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. After another exhausting day, I was finally able to go to sleep. As I drifted off, my hand settled on to my bump. I was delighted to be having a baby, but the pregnancy was really taking it out of me… 

I’d fallen pregnant in January 2017 and it seemed like the perfect timing for me and my husband Josh, then 31. Everyone we knew – my sister, my sister-in-law, friends – were all having babies. The only thing dampening my excitement was how awful I felt. I’d heard about morning sickness but I was suffering all day. Throwing up, lethargy, even breathlessness...

I was approaching six months in June 2017, and as everyone else was gaining their pregnancy glow, I felt worse than ever. My mum Jane, 54, was worried and insisted I talk to my midwife, who suggested I go to my GP.

When he took my pulse, he frowned. ‘It’s incredibly high,’ he said. Worried I may have pneumonia or a blood clot on my chest, he sent me straight to the respiratory ward for a scan. Then, an ultrasound discovered a mass on my chest.

It all happened so quickly as I was taken for a biopsy. Josh was sent home to pack a bag of clothes so I could stay overnight. But as I waited for him on the ward, a doctor arrived and closed the curtains round my bed. His expression instantly instilled fear into me. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘You have cancer.’