Holly Cross was just days away from her due date when she experienced terrible pain and felt something burst.
 
She was rushed to hospital expecting to give birth when scans showed that a baby wasn’t the only thing growing inside her.
 
Holly had a 10 inch cyst on her ovary, which tests showed was cause by ovarian cancer.
 
“I wanted the baby to be born so I could get on with feeling normal again and enjoy family life,”
 
“Then I felt a popping sensation and a piercing pain in my stomach. I was doubled up in pain, struggling to breathe and thought I was having a heart attack. As I held my stomach, it felt as hard as rock.”
 
Paramedics insisted the pain was caused by contractions, but as a mum already to a three year old boy Holly knew these were not just normal labour pains.
 
When Holly arrived at the hospital it was discovered that the baby’s heart rate had dropped alarmingly, and baby Joshua was delivered safely by emergency caesarean section.
 
Still exhausted from her ordeal, Holly and her husband Ray now had to deal with the horrifying reality that the young mum-of-two had ovarian cancer at age 22.
 
“Nobody knew how long it had been growing. In a way I was lucky to be pregnant as I hadn’t had any symptoms that would have made me aware I had ovarian cancer.” Holly explained.
 
“Had it not been for Joshua, wriggling around, which I think caused the cyst to burst, it could have continued to grow and the cancer could have spread.”
 
Holly was given the choice of having just the affected ovary removed, or having a full hysterectomy and a greater chance of stopping the cancer completely. Not wanting to take any chances with her life, she decided to have a hysterectomy.

“I was devastated at first but I decided I’d had my two boys and didn’t want there being any chance the cancer could come back. I wanted to see my boys grow up,” she says.
 
Last November Holly had her ovaries, womb, cervix, lymph nodes and appendix removed, and started chemotherapy in January this year.
 
After months of chemo and losing her hair, Holly has been given the all clear to return to normal life.
 
“Finally I can put the past behind me and make up for lost time with my boys.”
 

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