‘I want to be part of their life’: Terminal mother Maria Lelsz’s ultimate wish

Maria’s young children don’t yet know she’s dying. The young mum says she doesn’t want them to worry but instead enjoy the time she has left.

Mother’s Day for young mum Maria Lelsz will look different this year compared to last.

The 35-year-old is usually treated to a picnic or beach day but instead Maria will spend the day confined to a wheelchair too weak to celebrate.

“I keep forgetting it’s Mother’s Day,” the mum-of-two told The Sunday Mail.

“It’s just so much focus on my treatment.”

Maria has terminal cervical cancer. Doctors have told the Two Wells mum she does not have much time left. How long is written on a piece of paper she does not want to look at.

“I didn’t want to know that I’ve got three months to live because then you feel like your time is ticking,” she said.

“You hear people that have been given two months to live and they’ve lived a year or two and I don’t want to live in that fear.”

While she does not know the exact time, the former dental nurse has taken out her super. A claim only given to those with less than 24 months to live.

Josh Lelsz with Maria and their sons River, 4, and Gabriel, 8, sitting together at a home in Two Wells. Picture: Morgan Sette.

Maria and her husband of 10 years Joshua share two beautiful children, Gabriel, eight, and River, four.

They do not know their mum is dying.

“My kids have known that I’ve been unwell for a few months,” she said.

“(River’s) sick of that, he’s like, mum can you just get better already?

“My eldest son … we basically said to him, there’s something going on with mummy in her body, the doctor’s are trying to fix it and so is God.”

The Lelsz’s have not used “the C word”. After losing Joshua’s dad and brother to cancer, Gabriel “knows cancer is related to death”.

“We didn’t want to bring that word up with him because we didn’t want him to not sleep at night, we didn’t want him to worry, we wanted him to just be a kid so we just kept that to ourselves.

“He just knows that mummy needs to get better.”

Josh’s father died of cancer when he was 35 and his brother when he was only 17 years old. Picture: Morgan Sette.

Late last year after experiencing “excruciating” back pain Maria visited the emergency department but her symptoms were dismissed.

“A month later I went back to the same hospital and the same doctor diagnosed me … with cancer,” she said. It was November 15, 2022.

“They said it was stage four, it’s gone to the liver, it’s rare and aggressive.”

A week later on Friday she visited an oncology team and by the end of their appointment Maria was urgently booked into chemotherapy for the upcoming Monday.

“They said they can try and stop the cancer from spreading with the chemo but they can’t get rid of it,” she said.

After six rounds of chemotherapy, not only did the cancer not go away, it spread, to Maria’s lungs and liver.

Doctors said she could go through chemo again or try a different drug with a 10 to 15 per cent success rate.

“Because it’s so rare they can’t promise anything, they can’t say it’s going to work,” she said.

Maria started the new immunotherapy this week.

Despite the lack of medical reassurance Maria finds strength in her children.

“I was lying in bed and I just was thinking about my kids and I was praying and then I went to their bedrooms.

“I just laid there on the floor and held their hands while they were in bed and just knelt down next to their beds.

“My kids need me and my husband needs me and I want to see these kids grow up and I want to see my grandchildren, I want to be part of their life.”

When she is gone, Maria hopes her children will remember that “mum’s faith is unshakeable”.

“No matter what comes your way your faith is unshakeable,” she said.

“Things come at you in life don’t they, so no matter what, whether you have faith or no faith at all life happens.

“Stay strong in your faith and you can get through those hard times.”