A pair of newlyweds have said their baby is the “one shining light” after they were both diagnosed with cancer in the same year their daughter was born.
This time last year Matt and Laura Lambert, from Derby, were looking forward to getting married and welcoming their first child in the spring.
But in February their world came crashing down when Matt, who had visited hospital several times over the previous two years with “excruciating” abdominal pains, was diagnosed with a rare type of stomach cancer called neuroendocrine tumours.
The couple, who have been together for 15 years and work in software, did not let the bad news ruin their life plans, and eloped to Las Vegas in March.
Two months later their daughter, who they do not wish to name, was born, but after giving birth, Laura kept coughing and experiencing temperatures and night sweats.
She said doctors initially thought these were postpartum symptoms before a chest X-ray in November revealed Laura, 38, had a 15cm mass in her chest cavity which was stage 3 lymphoma – blood cancer.
Matt, 42, is scheduled to have an operation to remove his tumours in February, and Laura will start “intensive chemotherapy” before Christmas, but the pair are concerned about losing their home if they can no longer work and cover the mortgage repayments.
Laura’s mother Karen has launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help the couple pay their bills and afford childcare as both will be forced to stop working during treatment.
“I was thinking, why us?” Laura said.
“I’m losing so much precious time not being a mummy to our beautiful daughter.
“Even her first Christmas has basically been cancelled for us this year.”
Matt added: “All these worries have been getting to me because I don’t know how are we going to keep living in this house with all of the uncertainty ahead.”
Matt and Laura met in an online chat room in 1999 where they bonded over playing The Legend Of Zelda, a popular action-adventure video game.
Matt, who was 19 at the time, was living with his family in Wellingborough, more than 70 miles away from Laura, then aged 14, who was in Nottingham.
After a couple of months of messaging, their mothers agreed to meet face-to-face halfway and the pair soon became close friends.
They then lost touch for a few years but in 2007, Laura messaged Matt on Facebook out of the blue and the pair have been together ever since.
All had been going according to plan until Christmas Day 2021 when Matt suddenly fell violently ill after finishing his dinner.
“I was in agony,” he said.
“I was bent over and throwing up because I was in so much abdominal pain.”
The “excruciating pain” returned every three months for a few days.
“The pain goes away after four or five days and then I’m back to normal again,” he said.
“But it is excruciating – you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy.”
After multiple hospital visits, Matt was referred to a gastrointestinal specialist in Derby.
“I had been hospitalised like five or six times [before being diagnosed],” he said.
The specialist suggested Matt could be suffering irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but he was not convinced and asked whether there were any other tests.
He was told an MRI scan could help shed light on what was wrong.
“I said to Laura, I haven’t got IBS, there’s something else wrong with me,” Matt continued.
In February, Matt suffered another flare-up and was rushed to hospital by ambulance.
This time, he said he insisted on having an MRI and discovered he had been living with a rare type of stomach cancer.
“The next time I was in hospital, I said, can you give me an MRI because I can’t keep coming to hospital,” he said.
“And that’s when they said, oh, we’ve found something.
“That’s when they found my tumour.”
To prevent the flare-ups, Matt has been forced to change his diet and will not be able to enjoy Christmas dinner this year – one of his favourite meals.
“I can’t eat anything spicy or too salty like bacon or strong cheeses,” he said.
“So trying to keep it bland and very dull – beige food, basically.”
Despite the bad news, Matt and Laura said they tried to “carry on with life” and decided not to postpone their wedding, having already done so once because of Covid.
“We wanted to elope and have a small wedding in Las Vegas so we just took close family,” Matt said.
“It was a lot cheaper than having a wedding here [in the UK].”
In May, Laura gave birth to a baby girl and was looking forward to being a mother when disaster struck for a second time.
“Ever since giving birth she had a cough,” said Matt.
“It just kept going and I started to get concerned.”
“I went to the GP three or four times and they dismissed it as postpartum symptoms,” added Laura.
When her condition did not improve, she returned to the doctor and voiced her frustration.
This time, she was sent for a chest X-ray to see whether she was suffering from pneumonia, and was told to come back two days later to collect the results.
When she did, Laura said: “They asked if I had had a chest X-ray before and looked shocked.
“I could actually see it – it’s a 15cm mass.
“They said the GP would call me tomorrow, but he actually called later that day and said it’s lymphoma.
“I knew exactly what that meant.
“It took a few weeks to process and now I’m going to start chemo and get it gone.”
Laura is concerned that her poor health is getting in the way of being a mum, and is due to start chemotherapy on December 18.
“She’s not able to do a lot of things,” explained her mother Karen.
“She wishes she could do more and feels like she’s missing out on some things, especially at this time of year.”
While Laura had to have an emergency C-section, her daughter is perfectly healthy.
“She is our one shining light,” added Matt.
They are also worried about losing their home if they are forced to take time off work and cannot afford to cover their mortgage repayments.
“Obviously the cost of living is quite high at the moment and my mortgage deal was about to run out this month,” said Matt.
“I have got a new one now but I’m still £500 worse off, and with the uncertainty of the future and our new baby, I’m not sure we’ll be able to carry on living in this house.”
Matt was told specialists should be able to operate on his tumour which is in the small intestine.
His surgery, which has already been postponed twice, is scheduled to take place in February.
To support Matt and Laura visit: www.gofundme.com/f/lambert-family-ordeal .
