A mum diagnosed with bowel cancer 24 hours after losing her baby during life-saving surgery has been dealt another blow - after finding out the disease has returned. Lauren Fresa, 35, fell pregnant with her second child in October 2020 - but began noticing a change in her bowel movements at around the same time.
After months of going back and forth to her GP, and being sent home with laxatives, Lauren was rushed to hospital in February 2021. Medics discovered a blockage in her bowel and performed emergency surgery to fit a colostomy bag.
Tragically, just the day after undergoing the life-saving surgery whilst 18 weeks pregnant, Lauren was told she had lost her baby. Three days later, a scan then also revealed she had a tumour in her rectum, and the cancer had also spread to her liver.
Lauren underwent two rounds of chemotherapy at two different hospitals, from April 2021 until May 2022. She had surgery in June last year to remove the tumour, as well as a hysterectomy.
But just before Christmas, Lauren and her husband, Kris, 36, who works for homeless charity Shelter, were told the cancer has returned in her liver. She is now preparing to begin her third round of chemotherapy this week.
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Primary school teacher Lauren, from Flint, North Wales - who is mum to six-year-old Liam - said: "A lot has happened in a short space of time. It's taken me a bit longer this time to get my head around the news that the cancer is back. I think it's a case of once bitten, twice shy.
"It takes its toll - even though you know it's a possibility that it will return, you still hope it will all be OK. I'm just trying to stay as positive as I can.
"I'm going straight back onto the same chemotherapy I had the second time round, and I seemed to respond quite well to that, so I'm hoping it will work again." Lauren described losing her baby as "the most awful time" - made worse by lockdown restrictions meaning her husband could not be with her when she received the news.
She said: "It was just awful. It was made all the more sad because I was on my own in the hospital, and I was in the maternity ward when I found out. Because of lockdown, Kris wasn't allowed to come in and visit me.
"I had to tell him over the phone, and then he was only allowed to come in and see me briefly the next day. That alone should be the single most traumatic thing to happen to someone in their lifetime - let alone to then get a cancer diagnosis.
"It felt like a million things were happening at once. It was just horrible." Lauren says a post-mortem at the hospital revealed that she had suffered a "spontaneous miscarriage".
Sadly, Lauren's hysterectomy means she and Kris can no longer conceive any more children. She said: "Once I had had radiotherapy in my pelvic area, that door was closed to me. But to have the hysterectomy was just horrible - for me and Kris, and for our whole family.
"We definitely did want more children - I even froze some embryos before I had any cancer treatment, but now I can't even have them implanted anymore." Lauren also described how "a lot of mistakes were made" prior to her diagnosis - and believes that things could have happened differently.
She said: "The thought of anyone else having to go through what I went through makes me feel sick. I can't let this happen to others. So much could have happened differently - a lot of mistakes were made.
"I knew something was wrong, and I spent six months going back and forth to my GP, only to be sent home with laxatives and enema kits and told it was just constipation. Laxatives are supposed to take effect within two weeks - to be on them for six months is ridiculous - it's a hell of a long time."
In September 2021, Lauren was able to transfer to Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington, Wirral, and underwent eight months of chemotherapy treatment - known as FOLFIRI - which she has just begun her second round of. She said: "I don't know how long I will need to be on it for this time. I've been told three months, but I think it will be a case of we'll just wait and see what happens.
"I'm aware it might not be durable this time, but I'm trying to stay hopeful. I have great support from my husband, Kris - he's a very calm and optimistic person, which is a good balance as I'm naturally quite panicky and pessimistic."
And Lauren added: "I just want to do whatever I can to help other people avoid going through something like this. At the end of the day, you know your own body, so you have got to be the biggest advocate for your own health."
