Elizabeth Joice was so desperate to have the baby girl she was carrying that she turned down lifesaving cancer treatment and died just weeks after giving birth.
Just one month after finding out she was pregnant last June, Elizabeth’s doctors found a tumour in her lung.
They removed it with surgery, but because she was pregnant they could not give her the full body MRI scan she needed to see if her cancer was spreading or not.
So the 36-year-old New Yorker and her husband Max were faced with an unthinkable dilemma -abort her unborn baby to save her life, or carry on with a pregnancy and face almost certain death.
Elizabeth had fought cancer four years previously, and doctors had told her that the aggressive treatment she had undergone meant she would probably never get pregnant. The baby she was carrying was somewhat of a miracle.
Courageous Elizabeth chose to sacrifice her life to give her miracle baby a chance at life.
Elizabeth delivered baby Lily early via C-section in January but all-too cruelly, the cancer spread quickly throughout Elizabeth's body, including her right lung and her heart.
Elizabeth spent just a few weeks as a mother before her life was snatched away by cancer on March 9th.
She'd been able to spend only one day at home with Lily and Max.
"We said our goodbyes. It was like something out of a movie. We sat there and cried. We tried to tell stories, talk about all the great things," her heartbroken husband said.
He added, "Liz’s magic rubbed off on Lily. She’s beautiful and remarkable. It provides me with the strength to get through this.”
Loved ones are raising funds that will go to Max and baby Lily.
