“It was a really isolating diagnosis because I couldn’t find anything about it”, Mother, whose pregnancy triggered a rare life-threatening disease, is now fighting for life after giving birth to her baby

The young mother is fighting for her life after she was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease caused by her pregnancy. The doctors reportedly told the mother that her pregnancy ‘triggered’ a life-threatening tumor. Doctors initially told the woman that she was suffering from a molar pregnancy, which is a non-cancerous tumor that develops in the uterus as a result of a non-viable pregnancy. It remains unclear if the tumor was formed from part of the placenta or if her baby likely had a twin who had not fully developed. But, the doctors later told the mother that the tumor was precancerous and she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called choriocarcinoma.

The 32-year-old mother, Darlene Lynch, told the New York Post that she and her 34-year-old partner, Nigel Bermingham, welcomed their son Cillian in December 2021. Unfortunately, just 2 and a half months later, the young woman was rushed to hospital with severe bleeding. 

Doctors initially told the woman that she was suffering from a molar pregnancy, which is a non-cancerous tumor that develops in the uterus as a result of a non-viable pregnancy, The Mirror reports. It remains unclear if the tumor was formed from part of the placenta or if her baby likely had a twin who had not fully developed. But, the doctors later told Lynch that the tumor was precancerous and she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called choriocarcinoma.

During an interview with the New York Post, the young woman said: “When I was first diagnosed it was hard, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I went into the hospital on Monday and by the Friday I had my diagnosis and on Saturday I started my treatment. When the oncologist said it was cancer, we were upset, my partner was probably a lot more upset than I was because I was already kind of prepared.

I think in my head I already thought it was cancer so was thinking of what to do next. I was half focused whereas my partner was still processing it and he felt quite helpless in it all, and when you’re looking on and it is a loved one you don’t know what to do. They aren’t 100 per cent sure if Cillian was a twin and it laid dormant and didn’t come up until after he was born, or if it was formed from part of the placenta.

But they weren’t able to do a biopsy to determine this as my body had created four antibodies which means that I couldn’t get any blood transfusions for an operation. It is difficult to be a new mum and you do feel like that time has been taken away a little bit, and that can be hard. I had intentions of being a part of mothers’ groups, and taking him to swimming lessons, and I can’t do that because there’s a high risk of infection.”

In March 2022, the doctors told the mother that the cancer had already spread to her lungs. But, after chemotherapy, the tumors have halved in size, she said. Lynch’s cancer is so rare, nurses had to Google what it was.

The 32-year-old mother, Darlene Lynch, also said: “When I was in the ward, I’d speak to the nurses and they were like, ‘we’ve not heard of it before, we’ve not had cases of it before and they’d say, ‘we had to Google it’. So sometimes when I’m speaking with some of the nurses, they wouldn’t have come across it before. Even some of the doctors would have only had a few cases before, even one doctor only had one case with it before. It’s quite rare.

It can travel to the brain, the brain is the next place it goes, but I was quite lucky it hadn’t gone to the brain yet. And the fear was, these masses have such a tendency to bleed that’s why I had so much bleeding and if it had gone to the brain or if there were bigger masses in the lung, it would be quite dangerous. The last time I was in the hospital, I had some issues with my chest they thought I might have had a clot in the lung. So, I had to have a CT scan, luckily enough I didn’t have any clotting, but from the scans, they were able to see that the tumors had halved in size.”

The young mom from Australia is sharing regular updates on her social media account because she wants to raise awareness of the condition and provide support to others. She has decided to document her road to recovery on Instagram to help create awareness about this type of cancer.

“One of my main goals through my Instagram was to raise awareness for this complex rare cancer of mine. To raise awareness of gestational trophoblastic disease and more specific my cancer Choriocarcinoma and of molar pregnancies. Never did I think it would have reached as far as it has.” she reportedly wrote.

Her friends and family have launched a GoFundMe Page. The fundraising page said the funds raised will go towards relieving some financial pressures in the coming months.

“On the 7th of March, when Cillian was only 10 weeks old, Darlene went to the emergency department with bleeding, which is when they subsequently found out that this was caused by a molar pregnancy. She was initially booked for surgery to remove the molar pregnancy but they later found multiple antibodies in her blood which meant that the operation was too risky. This is because it would mean that should she require a transfusion they wouldn’t be able to find blood to match. On the 11th of March, they met with a consultant and were given the devastating news that she had an extremely rare form of cancer, called gestational trophoblastic disease. The specific cancer Darlene has been diagnosed with is choriocarcinoma, which occurs in about 1 in 50,000 pregnancies.” the GoFundMe Page wrote.