New mum is diagnosed with cancer five months after the birth of her baby girl

A young mother has limited time left as she battles a terminal illness, but is asking people for help to raise her baby girl.

At just 28 years old, being a first time mum should have been the biggest and most exciting challenge in Anna’s life.

With her husband, family and her new baby girl by her side, a new chapter of her life was about to unfold.

But Anna’s world was turned upside down when a hospital visit after a faint led doctors to discover a 10cm tumour growing in her spine.

Anna and her baby girl, Sunny. Pictures: "Save Anna and her baby – new mum with brain cancer",

In June, she was diagnosed with GBM (Glioblastoma Multiforme), an aggressive, fast-growing tumour in her brain stem.

Glioblastoma typically appears in people in their 60s, and has an incidence of three in 100,000.

Sadly, the survival rate for patients with this kind of brain cancer drops from 40% in the first year after diagnosis, to just 17% in the second.

With essential treatment, Anna was informed she would only have three to six months left of her life.

Anna and her family have started a Go Fund Me page, in the hopes she can raise enough money for treatment, or at the very least, provide for her daughter in the future if the worst should happen.

“I am asking for help to pay my treatment and secure my baby girl’s future,” she said in a video on the site.

The scans of Anna’s brain cancer. Pictures: "Save Anna and her baby – new mum with brain cancer"

Anna, a student at Charles Darwin University, met her partner Will in 2008, and fell in love when they were 18.

On February 7 of this year, they were “blessed” with their baby girl, Sunny.

“I had just begun my life as a first-time mum for five months,” Anna wrote on her Go Fund Me page.

“The tumour started in my brain stem and has spread quickly throughout the spinal cord.

“I have limited time left, but I hope essential treatment will give me a little more time.”

Her baby girl, now five months old, may grow up without her mother, a reality that is becoming more and more likely for Anna and her husband.

Anna said she thinks of how she won’t be around to watch her baby grow up and crawl, walk, talk, go to school, travel the world or find love.

“I can’t control my tears whenever I think of my baby,” she said.

Sunny, who Anna says always has a big bright smile on her face, is currently being cared for by Anna’s husband and their family that have travelled from overseas to support them.

Anna’s parents don’t speak English, and cannot work for medical reasons, but they are taking turns in caring for Sunny.

Her husband Will says the pair first moved to Australia after university and have built a life they love in Darwin.

“When we arrived here, we deeply attracted by this land, the environment and scenery are so beautiful, the people and animals are so kind,” he said.

Anna and her husband. Pictures: "Save Anna and her baby – new mum with brain cancer",

“This is a hot place, but people here make it a more passionate city. We enjoy the sunshine on the beach in the dry season, and we enjoy the rain of rainforest in the wet season as well.

“We are very happy to live here.”

Will says his wife’s diagnosis came after months of attempts to get answers from the healthcare system.

“We had gone to the GP many times since she felt arm numbness first time in June of last year,” he said.

“She complained to the GP about her numbness every time, but had always been told it’s okay. As we trusted the GP deeply at the time, we didn’t think about the bad.

“Later, the specialist told us that treatment on the tumor should have started a year ago.”

Will said although he’s spent more than a decade with his wife, he wishes for a lifetime more.

“I love her more than my life, I would like to trade my lifetime for her health if possible, I want to share my life with her,” he said.

“I don’t know how to describe her mother to my daughter, how to comfort her parents about losing their only daughter.

“There are many things I want to do for her, over and over again till old. But no chance.

“I haven’t dared to rest for minutes since she went into hospital, every moment of my rest makes me feel like I’m wasting the limited time, I’m letting her down. And I can only cry in the car shortly, then go back to work, go back to family, go back to hospital, go back to life.”

Will, Anna says, is an amazing, strong man, one that would trade his life for her health.

Anna and her husband Will. Pictures: "Save Anna and her baby – new mum with brain cancer",

“When he first heard the bad news, he comforted me, saying ‘Don’t worry dear, even if the sky falls down, I will be there to carry it for you,’” she said.

“He cooks delicious meals, cleans the house, and is a wonderful dad to Sunny.”

When they first learned of Anna’s condition, he brought forward their wedding, which had been postponed due to the pandemic.

“We both love each other more than our life,” she said.

Anna, who has just celebrated her 28th birthday, said she doesn’t want her life to be over now.

She wants to fulfil her duty as a mum, daughter, wife and friend.

The only hope she has left is in a German hospital, the only place she has found that will operate on her kind of cancer.

One problem, it could cost “more than a million.”

“Asking for your help is the only way I can try to save my life and secure a future for my poor little girl,” she wrote.

“Maybe I won’t be there to see my baby grow up in this world, but I am sure she will live up to be a cheerful, optimistic, kind and innocent girl just like me.”

“If you can give her enough for living expenses, I would be able to rest in peace.”

Those looking to donate to Anna’s cause can visit her Go Fund Me page here.

Originally published as New mum is diagnosed with cancer five months after the birth of her baby girl