A mum diagnosed with terminal cancer is writing birthday cards for her children to open when she’s no longer around.
Laura Atkinson, 37, was given the devastating news she had stage four Ocular Uveal Melanoma in 2014 after she went for a routine eye test. Despite having an operation to remove the tumour while she was pregnant with her son Dylan, Laura’s cancer spread to her liver.
Her wish is to still be around in time to take Dylan, currently three, to school for his first day in September 2019. The mum, who also has daughter Faye, six, is currently receiving treatment from the Spire Southhampton Hospital which she hopes will let her reach this milestone.
In the meantime, she is planning to ensure her kids will always know how much she loves them by writing them birthday cards in advance, for her partner, Keith, to give to them each year.
“I have to think about what will happen when I’m not there,” said the mum, 37, from Warrington.
Laura said her initial diagnosis was a complete shock because she wasn’t having any symptoms. And despite having the emergency surgery while she was pregnant, she was given the news shortly before Dylan’s birth that the tumour would likely return.
In August 2017, while on a family holiday, Laura was called in by doctors following a routine scan and exploratory surgery and was given the news that there was nothing more they could do and the cancer had returned. ”It was just an awful moment,” she said. “It’s indescribable. I was never naive to think it wouldn’t come back but I never thought it would come back so quickly.”
Laura said that since she was given the news, she’s focused on trying to spend as much time as possible with Dylan, Faye and Keith. She hasn’t revealed the full nature of her condition to her kids so that she can protect them.
To prepare her children for life without her, Laura has started writing the letters and cards for the birthdays she won’t be around for. She wants them to know – for as long as they live – it was never her choice to leave.
“I was really angry at the start – not for me, but for the kids,” she said. ”It’s a terrible thing that will happen to them. I never wanted to go, that is what I hope they understand. I don’t want them to be angry with me.
“I just hope they won’t be cross and that this was never the way I wanted it to turn out. I thought I’d be stood by their side for the next 40 or 50 years, and would never leave them so young.”
The mum is currently fundraising £80,000 on GoFundMe for the final two cycles of her treatment, which costs £40,000 per cycle, after funding two cycles herself.