A mum cuddles the baby she credits with saving her from a cancer that was growing in her tummy during her pregnancy.
Little Arabella will be one next weekend but her mother faces an uncertain future after a nine-hour operation two months ago.
Katie Suley, 27, was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer of the digestive system which was originally mistaken by medics for pregnancy pain.
She said: “I’m lucky to be alive.
“My daughter is an absolute blessing because I truly think it was being pregnant with her that brought the symptoms to the surface.”
In a cruel twist of fate, Katie’s mum Sophie was diagnosed with breast cancer while caring for her daughter earlier this month.
Katie, of Harwich, Essex, first complained of severe tummy pains while expecting Arabella.
Even after the birth doctors were telling her she had nothing to worry about but Katie was unconvinced.
She said: “They told me I had gastric ulcers and they put me on pills to treat them. When various drugs didn’t work I kept on asking for investigations.
“I had a baby daughter and I was determined for her sake to find out what was wrong with me.
“I had so much sickness and pain that the only food I could keep down was a liquid diet.
“It was only when I asked to go private that things started to happen.
“I was referred back into the NHS and then I was being sent for all sorts of tests including an endoscopy where they put a camera into your tummy.
“At first I was diagnosed with severe stomach ulcers that kept perforating, but biopsies eventually showed it was gastric cancer.
“After several tests they found I had a very rare digestive cancer called signet ring cell carcinoma.”
It affects just 1% of people with gastric cancer and is normally seen in older people.
Doctors were so amazed to find it in a young person that they are writing up her story for a medical journal.
Katie said: “It took a while for the doctors to start taking me seriously, but thankfully they then moved quickly with the surgery.”
By the time they operated at London’s Royal Free Hospital, the cancer had spread around her abdomen and they had to remove half her stomach, plus most of her small intestine, gall bladder, and part of her pancreas. Katie said: “Luckily I survived, but they had to cut out an awful to get rid of the cancer.
“They got to my cancer very late but if hadn’t have been for my pregnancy I might not have pushed as hard as I did to find out what was wrong.
“And then it might have got to the stage where there was nothing they could do for me at all.”
After having so much of her digestive system removed Katie now has to take a cocktail of enzymes every time she eats.
She said: “If I didn’t take them, everything I eat would just run right through me and I wouldn’t get any nutrition.
“It’s something I’m having to learn to get used to.”
As she recovered from her surgery her mum Sophie moved in to look after her and the baby.
Soon afterwards Sophie, 48, found out she had breast cancer and soon mother and daughter will have chemotherapy just a week apart at Colchester Hospital.
But first Katie is having fertility treatment to harvest eggs so that she can have children in the future.
She said: “It’s a precaution in case my fertility is affected by the chemo. I want more kids. In the future.
“But for the moment I am just focusing on getting over my cancer treatment and seeing what happens next.
“I know I have had a brush with death and now I am hoping that nothing comes back in the future.
“To be honest I don’t have time to worry. I have a lively baby. She’s one next Sunday. We are having a big party at my mum and dad’s place. I haven’t checked survival rates. When you have a little one you have to be optimistic.”
Katie’s mum Sophie said: “Katie has been incredibly brave. She has gone through so much. It was her persistence that got her diagnosis and treatment. She wouldn’t give up.
“It was awful seeing her not holding down food and coughing up blood.
“First they found the ulcers but still couldn’t find the cancer until they looked below the ulcers, using an endoscope, and saw the cancer.
“I think Covid may have played a part. It’s hard to say. You hear about patients who have delayed cancer diagnosis due to the virus. Katie has to be upbeat because she has a little one to look after. We know Katie’s cancer is aggressive but we have to pray and hope it never returns.”
Sophie had felt a lump in her breast for months but was too focused on Katie to get it looked at.
She said: “I should have gone sooner but I kept on putting it off because my daughter was my main worry.
“I was finally diagnosed earlier this month while I was caring for Katie after her operation.”
Family and friends have rallied round to help the two women by setting up a GoFundMe page.
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Sophie’s husband Mike, 51, an NHS ambulance driver, said: “It’s been a tough year for the family to have my wife and daughter diagnosed with cancer. Just as Katie was getting over her surgery we were dealt the blow of Sophie’s diagnosis.
“Now I’m going to have to take time off while they go through their chemo.
“We’re hoping the money we raise will help tide us over until my wife and Sophie can go back to work.”
Katie added: “I am just completely overwhelmed and we feel like we have the whole of Harwich backing us.
“We have no choice but to deal with the hand we’ve been dealt, but we’ve got such amazing friends and family behind us.”
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