A heartbroken mum has been told she could have just months left to live after being kicked in the stomach during an attack. Sheena Hardman was given the devastating news that she has incurable bowel cancer just months after giving birth to her daughter, Rhea.
The 41-year-old first started experiencing stomach pains after being assaulted outside her Warrington home while putting her baby in the car in November last year. She initially though the pains were coming from her C-section scar and attended Warrington Hospital to get checked over.
However, after running various tests, doctors found that the mum-of-two had three tumours in her bowel - one of which had spread to her lymph nodes. Her family are now hoping to find an alternative form of treatment through private healthcare and have set up a Gofundme page to help cover the costs.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Sheena’s sister Shelley Harrison, 38, said : “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 went for a scan followed by a biopsy, the results of 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 a gruelling course of 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 married her partner Chris Hardman, 40, in June before spending their honeymoon in Ibiza. The first cycle of chemotherapy was successful in shrinking the tumour, however Sheena suffered another blow in June when she contracted sepsis, followed by a several other infections.
During this time she was unable to continue with her treatment, with her cancer doubling in size. In September, Sheena was left shattered after being told her cancer is terminal and she could have just months left to live without treatment - or a year if treatment is successful.
The mum-of-two has started making memory boxes for her children, which they can look through as they grow up. She has also bought presents for every single one of their birthdays and other milestones she won't get to see them achieve.
Sister Shelley has set up a Gofundme page to help Sheena, Chris and their children, 13-year-old Joel and 14-month-old Rhea as they look into 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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