Mum diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer seven weeks after giving birth

Just seven weeks into new parenthood, Jenna and Ronny Clarke received a phone call that changed their lives and burst their baby bubble.

Reflecting on her first pregnancy, there was little Jenna Clark, 35, could have done to prepare herself for the life-changing news her and husband, Ronny Clark, 42, were about to receive.

While pregnant with Summer – the couple’s first child – in September 2014, Ms Clark was experiencing mild symptoms like lower back pain, extreme exhaustion and light spotting and bleeding, but neither her nor her doctors were concerned.

It wasn’t until her GP recommended a completely procedural cervical scan at six weeks post-partum that her test results returned abnormalities that alarmed doctors.

Ms Clark recalls the moment she received the phone call that would change their life and “burst” their baby bubble.

“It was Ronny’s second week back at work and I was still getting on my feet with being mum at home, and just got Summer down for a nap,” says Ms Clark.

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Jenna and Ronny Clark had blissfully become new parents when Jenna’s test results sent them crushing down to reality. Picture: Instagram.

“My phone rang twice and when I went to call the doctor surgery they said: ‘We need you to come in to discuss your results.’”

Although she tried to schedule her appointment for the week after, the receptionist told her she had to “come in today, if not right now”.

“In that moment I just felt everything sink. I remember physically hitting my back against the wall and just sliding to the ground,” says Ms Clark.

‘You go into survival mode’

The Clarks describes the next phase of their cancer journey as “the waiting game”.

“You’re thrown into this spiral of testing and results and just praying for the best and trying not to think about the worst,” says Ms Clark.

Navigating the process while adjusting to life with a newborn was also a blessing and a curse. Their weeks-old daughter, Summer forced Ms Clark to continue with the daily grind of changing diapers, bathing, napping and feeding.

“It was a very, very beautiful distraction but at the same time, it was such a devastating element to the story,” says Ms Clark.

“We were like: ‘How can we have just bought this little life into the world? And now we don’t know if I’m going to be here to raise her’.”

The surgeries she needed to remove the cancer also required a series of surgeries, multiple hospital stays, blood transfusions and “constant” bleed outs.

Ms Clark and baby Summer after her first operations. Picture: Supplied.

The couple remember one occasion when Ms Clark had just returned from the hospital and had woken up in the early morning to feed Summer. She then noticed the bed was soaked with her blood. Rushing to the hospital, Mr Clark remembers calling his parents-in-law, terrified.

“I’m calling Jenna’s parents because I’m thinking Jenna’s dying and they’ve got to come in now. I was crying. I thought that was probably the tipping point,” he says.

“That was a difficult one to get through and something that really stays with you,” Ms Clark responded.

The young family were hit with another blow when they realised Ms Clark’s condition wasn’t pre-cancer but a type of aggressive cervical cancer called cervical adenocarcinoma.

The second diagnosis happened mid-December, just before Christmas, which meant they weren’t able to seek treatment until mid-January.

“You could just tell straight away when we walked in,” says Ms Clark. “We though we would all be cheering but the room was very, very quiet.”

“There’s not book. You definitely just go into survival mode,” Mr Clark remembers.

Facing another round of testing and treatment, Ms and Mr Clark said the “uncertainty” was crippling. While they were able to treat the cancer through surgical means (most likely a hysterectomy), and not through radiation and chemotherapy, the couple were forced to confront the reality that they wouldn’t be able to grow their three-person family.

However, their oncologist, Professor Jonathan Carter from Sydney’s Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, recommended a new procedure which would give the couple a chance at having a second child.

Called a trachelectomy, the surgery would remove the tissue around Ms Clark’s lymph nodes and the cervix but it meant doctors could preserve the uterus and thus maintain her fertility.

Born in September 2017, their second child – a boy they named Vander – became the first baby birthed at the O’Brien Lifehouse thanks to the trachelectomy procedure.

Ronny with baby Vander at the hospital. Picture: Supplied.

SurFebruary: ‘Turning negatives into positives’

A few months after Vander’s birth, Mr Clark came up with the idea for SurFebruary: A charity challenge which sees people commit to surfing, or getting into the water everyday for the month of February.

He had been inspired by a friend who had surfed everyday for a month and loved the results and had been contemplating doing a fundraiser for the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse for a while.

SurFebuary meant he could do both. Enlisting their family friends, Krista Huebner, Mike Durante, and Ms Clark as the co-founders of SurFebruary, it was a challenge that his friends, and soon, total strangers, got on board with as well.

In the first year, Mr Clark and 25 friends raised $20,000 through sponsorships, with those figures increasing to 105 participants who raised $78,000 in the second year.

People who don’t have readily access to surfing beaches have adapted the challenge to just getting into the water for the month of February, or even stand up paddle-boarding on the local dam.

Now, in their fifth year, they’re hoping to raise over $1 million dollars and are so far $300,000 into their target.

Describing the benefits of daily surfing, Mr Clark said it was like a form of meditation.

“You’re stoked in the water but the benefits outside the water are great too,” he said.

“You’re also getting vitamin D from the sun, plus you get fit and healthy. You’re just present during that half an hour surf.”

While the couple have been able to raise funds for cancer research at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse – the kind which allowed them to have Vander – another highlight of SurFebruary has been seeing the diverse community it’s attracted, which includes hobby and professional surfers, primary school students and even cancer patients undergoing treatment.

“It’s been such a grassroots movement,” says Ms Clark. “It’s all people just working together and communities getting together.”

In a full-circle moment, they’ve also had several cancer survivors and patients share their stories, which Mr Clark remembers as one of the most helpful things they did when Ms Clark first received her diagnosis.

“In hindsight, knowing what we went through, I encourage people (who have been diagnosed with cancer) to speak about it,” says Mr Clark.

“Let their friends know about it and get that support. You don’t need to go through it by yourself.”

SurFebruary’s mission is to improve the lives of those diagnosed with cancer by funding inspiring and innovative research that benefits all Australians. Donate to SurFebruary here.