A heartbroken mum has revealed she has terminal cancer – three years after welcoming her miracle son via IVF.
Jenna Loughran, 37, from Coventry, was diagnosed with stage four triple negative breast cancer in May 2022 – after finding a lump on her breast in the shower in December 2020.
While she went through various treatment routes in between, by May it became clear that her condition was terminal.
She was devastated at the diagnosis, which came three years after she welcomed son Theo, following two rounds of IVF, in June 2019.
Now, her focus is on making memories with her little boy to last a lifetime – with the help of generous online donors.
“I was absolutely devasted when I got the diagnosis,” Jenna, a former legal secretary, told NeedToKnow.online.
“I don’t know how long I’ve got left and I’ve got a little boy, he’s just turned three.
“I just want to be able to do as much as I can with him and make some memories.
“Everyone kept saying to me that I should set up a GoFundMe page and I put it off for a while because it made me feel awkward and I didn’t want to have to ask.
“But in the end, I just wanted to make memories with Theo and I didn’t see any other way I could do it.”
The page has raised more than her £5,000 target, with donors touched by the sad story.
On the page, Jenna wrote: “My son has just turned three years old. He is my world. After a battle with infertility and two rounds of IVF it is so cruel that I won’t be around to see him grow up.
“My heart breaks for him. I want him to remember me and the times we spent together.
“I want him to be proud of his mummy and know I did everything I could to be around for as long as I can.
“I really want to make as many memories for Theo as I can but as I’m not working this is very difficult.
I spend a lot of money going back and forth to the hospital and on supplements to try and keep me as healthy and active as possible. Any possible trials, alternative therapies, I want to be able to explore.
“I have a lifetime of memories still to make.”
With the money raised, Jenna is hoping that she and Theo can go on adventures together such as a Christmas away in Centre Parcs and a trip to CBeebies Land.
Jenna has also booked a trip to Majorca this September which will be Theo’s very first holiday.
The 37-year-old was first diagnosed with stage three TNBC in December 2020 after finding the lump in the shower.
For 14 months, Jenna undertook 15 rounds of IV chemotherapy, three weeks of radiotherapy, six months of oral chemotherapy and a single mastectomy with full node clearance.
In February 2022, she finished her active treatment.
Jenna was finally starting to make plans for her future and was even hoping to become a teaching assistant, however a routine scan in March showed that the cancer had returned to two lymph nodes in her chest.
She said: “With triple-negative breast cancer there was always a high risk of recurrence and spreads.
“It’s the most aggressive form of breast cancer, with the least amount of treatment options available.
“I just hoped I would have had more time before it came back.”
Since the devastating diagnosis, Jenna’s focus is now on making as many memories as she can with Theo, who she describes as ‘extra special’ as she had to go through two rounds of IVF to have him.
Jenna said: “Theo is so clever, he’s a character and a comedian, he is my little best mate.”
She says the response to the fundraising page has been “overwhelming” and never thought “in a million years” that so many people would donate.
As well as raising funds for her adventures with Theo, Jenna also wants to raise awareness about checking your lumps and bumps.
She said: “I have no history of breast cancer in the family at all, I was fit and healthy, there was no reason to think the lumps were anything other than cysts.
“I just want people to be more body aware, just go to the doctors if you feel like something is wrong and get checked out.
“And finally, don’t leave it to the last minute to make memories with the ones you love.”
Read more: ‘Doctors missed signs of my very rare cancer’ says woman forced to amputate her leg
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