A mum was told the devastating news she could have months left to live after being kicked in the stomach.
Sheena Hardman was diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer months after giving birth to her baby girl, Rhea. Sheena, 41, had no idea she was unwell until she started suffering from stomach pains after being attacked outside her home in Warrington while putting her baby in car in November last year.
The 41-year-old initially thought the pains were coming from the area where she had her C-section and went to Warrington Hospital to get checked over. But doctors soon discovered the mum-of-two had three tumours in her bowel and one of them had spread to her lymph nodes.
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The family are now hoping to find an alternative cancer treatment for Sheena through private healthcare, with all money raised via a Gofundme page going towards this.
Sheena’s sister Shelley Harrison, 38, told the ECHO: “She was kicked in the stomach and obviously because she’d had a C-section she just assumed the pains after the attack were related to that and went to A&E.
"They basically said where she was having pain from the attack, it wouldn’t really be an after affect of the C-section. It wasn’t really in the right place and she wouldn’t have pains where she was experiencing them.”
Sheena was sent for a scan followed by a biopsy which showed she had three cancerous tumours in her bowel, one of which had also spread to her lymph nodes. She was referred to Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool before starting her chemotherapy at Halton Hospital.
Shelley said: “The treatment was seeing if they could tackle the smaller tumour and help to shrink the bigger one, and then they could understand what the next steps would be.
“I think she was just numb to begin with. She just had a little baby girl who is now 14 months old.
“It’s something you can’t really process. I think it’s only now she’s started to process the news that she’s actually not got a lot of time. The consultant said to her 'if there’s anything you want to do and haven’t done it’d be wise to do it this year.'”
Sheena got married to her partner Chris Hardman, 40, in June and they went on a holiday to Ibiza together. The first cycle of chemotherapy was successful in shrinking the tumour, but Sheena suffered a knock back in June when she contracted sepsis followed by a series of other infections.
She was unable to continue with chemotherapy during this time, causing the cancer to double in size. In September, Sheena was told the devastating news the cancer was terminal and she could have months left to live without treatment, or a year if treatment is successful.
The mum-of-two has made the heartbreaking decision to start putting memory boxes together for her children and has bought presents to mark each of their birthdays and other milestones. Sister Shelley has set up a Gofundme page to help Sheena, Chris and their children Joel, 13, and Rhea, 14 months, as they explore different options for private treatments.
Shelley said: “To think that everyone is going through a hard time financially and people have still got funds to donate. There’s people on [the fundraising page] that I don’t even know that have donated a big chunk of money. It makes you realise there’s so many nice people out there.”
To donate to the Gofundme page click here.
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