In March this year, Britain's Daily
Mail carried a story about Indira Jayasuriya, daughter of Karu Jayasuriya, who
refused to have an early C-section to give her unborn second child a better
chance at surviving after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The story (Written
in March, 2016) is
given below:
A terminally
ill mother reveals how she chose to delay crucial cancer treatment while she
was pregnant with her second child.
Indira
Jayasuriya, 39, from Bromley, Kent, who had been given the all-clear from
breast cancer two years earlier, was given the devastating news that the
disease had returned and spread to her liver while she was just 28 weeks along
with her son Dilan.
But the mum
defied doctors orders to have an early Caesarian so she could begin fighting
the tumours - and give her newborn 'the best chance in life'.
The former
sales executive said: ‘I was adamant I wanted my baby to stay inside me.
'I didn’t like
the thought of having him born very prematurely and I wanted to give him the
best possible chance at life. He had helped detect the cancer, saving me. I
just hoped I could save him too.’
Indira had
one session of chemo while pregnant to try and shrink the tumour but it didn’t
work.
So in May
2015, at 33 weeks and six days pregnant, Indira agreed to have a Caesarean
section.
She gave
birth to a healthy baby boy, Dilan, now eight months, who weighed just 4lbs.
‘He was
whisked to the special care baby unit,’ she said. ‘But the midwives brought him
to see me regularly.'
Indira
Jayasuriya and her husband Martyn, HR director for a children's foundation,
were 'overwhelmed' by their new arrival and so was their two-year-old daughter
Thilini, who fell 'head over heels for her baby brother.’
The moment
of joy came eight years after Indira first spotted a lump in her right breast
in the winter of 2007.
She
initially tried to ignore the worrying symptoms.
‘I wanted to
forget about the lump, but it was impossible,’ she said. ‘It seemed to be
growing by the day. Back home, I went along for my scan, followed by a
mammogram and biopsy.’
Days later,
in 2008, she returned for her results with Martyn, an HR director for a
children's foundation, and was given the shocking news that she had breast
cancer.
‘At first I
thought the doctor must have been wrong,’ Indira said. ‘I was only 31 and led a
healthy and active life. I was a vegan, ran several 10km races each year and
was a keen swimmer.’
A surgeon
told Indira she would need a single mastectomy before she started chemotherapy.
Then the couple were dealt another blow as she was told it was unlikely she
would be able to have children after the treatment.
They had
already been thinking about trying for children, so in April 2008, it was
suggested that Indira had her eggs removed and fertilised with Martyn’s sperm.
‘That week I
had 12 embryos frozen,’ she said. ‘It was a huge relief to know I might still
be a mother.’
Indira then
underwent the surgery followed by an immediate reconstruction. After her
operations came chemotherapy.
She said: ‘I
suffered with every possible symptom there was. My hair fell out and the nausea
was horrendous. I was sure the treatment was killing me.’
After five
sessions, Indira had finished the course but she was left drained and
exhausted.