A mum-of-two who was turned away by doctors who told her she had low iron and post-natal depression actually had terminal cancer and just months to live.
Chanelle Moles, 34, from Fremantle in Western Australia, started feeling unbearable fatigue shortly after giving birth to her second child in 2019.
But she was repeatedly turned away by GPs who told her she was suffering with a post-natal hormonal imbalance.
Chanelle's tiredness continued to worsen, but she thought it was "normal" for a mum with a toddler and newborn on her hands.
She turned to healthy eating and exercise in the hopes of curing her fatigue, but knew something wasn't right after collapsing into bed after a walk and being unable to get out for days.
It wasn't until she went back to the doctor in late 2020 that she pushed for an answer.
After blood tests showed she had low iron and anaemia, she underwent a colonoscopy in October 2020 which revealed her devastating diagnosis.
Doctors told the 34-year-old mum-of-two that a large tumour had grown in her colon.
But after more scans they discovered that the cancer had spread into her liver - and that it was Stage 4, or terminal.
In a Facebook post she wrote: “Never in my wildest dreams could I have thought that within five years of becoming a mummy I would be told I don’t have long to live.
“Everyday I wake up I wish I could just ‘wake up’ from this nightmare and see that it was all just a dream.
“Unfortunately it is not, this is my reality and the reality for my beautiful children and husband. I don’t want to leave them, not yet. I love life and I am doing everything I possibly can to fight for mine.”
Due to the aggressiveness of the cancer, surgeons operated within a month to remove the tumour and the spots on her liver.
She underwent 13 months of gruelling chemotherapy before her body started struggling under the treatment.
Doctors then used a type of radiation therapy called CyberKnife which was initially successful and sent her into remission after destroying the lesions on her liver.
Chanelle's reprieve lasted just one month before she was told days before Christmas that the cancer had spread again - this time to her peritoneal cavity, ovaries, and throughout her abdomen.
Now the cancer has spread into her lymph nodes, diaphragm, lungs and returned back to the liver.
She has been told she has between six and 18 months to live, Yahoo News Australia reports.
Chanelle's distraught family and friends are trying to raise money so their "MummyBee" can undergo a "state-of-the-art" anti-neopeptide treatment in Houston in the US.
If you would like to donate, you can do so here.
