Everyday it was pretty much the same routine until I felt a tiny lump in my throat. Nothing really alarming, but being a mum and pregnant, I took no chances and left work early one day to go to the doctors.

"I had 3 doctors scratching their heads"

unsure of what they were looking at. They referred me to the hospital to have it checked out. Being pregnant limited what scans I could have but they were able to do an ultrasound which showed something down my neck to my chest.

"They pushed for me to have a chest x-ray."

They where shocked to discover that I had a mass in my chest next to my heart which extended up to my throat. It was over the size of a tennis ball but I showed no signs. The doctors insisted I stay in hospital as the mass was leaning on my airways and part of my heart, but I stayed the night and insisted on going home.

My sister helped by watching the children so I could relax at home. This was on Friday at around lunch time that I went home. That following Monday morning I started having contractions and was doing everything I could to slow it down. I had no choice but to go to hospital with my partner. Unfortunately, they could not prolong labour and my body went into shock. My babies heart rate dropped so they were forced to perform an emergency Caesarean section.

My little boy was born only 1716g at 30 weeks and was rushed up to the maternity ward and I ended up joining him the next day after some blood transfusions.

Tuesday morning I informed the nurses about the mass in my chest, and how I was unable to do certain tests when I was pregnant. On Friday morning I was sent for a throat biopsy. After all I had already been through,

"I was informed that I had stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma."

How could all this be happening without any signs or warning? I thought I was in relatively good health. I went to see my boys and gave my baby a big kiss knowing that I had to start chemo and I wouldn’t be able to touch them for a week. It hurt.

"Here I am, four months later."

We have been put through a lot. My son had to have surgery on his bowel when he was still in the premmie ward and it’s been a struggle. But I am lucky. I have done 4 rounds of chemo, I still have a fair bit of hair left and as of this Friday I can kiss my boys whenever I want to.

I still have radiation in the next few weeks but I am glad to say that on my last PET scan there were no traces of cancer so for the first time this year I got some fantastic news for me and my kiddies.