Ciara Jones got the best news of her life on the same day she got the worst.
The 34-year-old office clerk from Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, learned she was four weeks pregnant with her third child on the very same day last October that a biopsy revealed she had stage two breast cancer.
“Hearing the words ‘you have cancer’ the same day I found out I was pregnant was like falling into a dark hole,” she said.
“The cancer is one thing, the pregnancy is another – but the two together is a lot to take in. I felt all alone, like I was the only one who got the bad news that day.
“You don’t hear about people being pregnant with cancer. It’s not even something I thought was possible.”
Because there was no family history of breast cancer or other red flags, she assumed the lump she felt in her right breast during a self-exam was the same benign cyst she discovered in the same spot 20 years earlier.
But just to be on the safe side, she went to her GP, who referred her to the breast clinic at Limerick University Hospital.
There, she got a mammogram, an ultrasound, and finally a biopsy — which ultimately confirmed her cancer diagnosis.
“It was a bit of a shock. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would find out I had cancer and be pregnant
at the same time,” she told the Irish independent.
The fact that her invasive ductal carcinoma could quickly spread to her lymph nodes worried her, but because of her pregnancy, she was advised to wait until she was 12 weeks pregnant before starting treatment.
“There are no words for how I felt during those weeks. I had a lot of fear of losing the baby. That was very difficult, especially since I was told that I would not be able to have any more children. I couldn’t just try it for someone else. That was a scary thought,” she said.
But by the 10th week of her pregnancy, the malignancy had grown so large that she had no choice but to have a mastectomy.
Ten weeks later, she began a specialized form of chemotherapy, which landed her in ICU for four days after responding poorly to the drugs.
However, her body adapted after the second round and her medical team was happy with the results.
She also had the imminent arrival of the baby, who she later learned is a boy, to focus her on the positive.
“If it weren’t for the baby, I don’t know where I’d be. That was what drove me,” she says.
Her seemingly rare status of both being pregnant and battling cancer affected her emotionally — and the only people she initially told the news to were her mother and her partner.
“I don’t think it got through. I got into a state where I didn’t talk to anyone, I didn’t want to talk about it. I wanted to appear normal for as long as possible. I continued working, I didn’t want people to look at me differently,” she said.
But now that she’s more than halfway through both her pregnancy and her treatment, she’s happy to share her experiences and support other women going through the same thing.
“After my mastectomy I put on a new one Instagram account. It was my way of telling people who didn’t know, so I talked about the importance of early detection.”
She went from about 20 followers on the account to 1,400 – and is now happy to share her story with the Irish Cancer Society, as part of their annual Daffodil Day fundraiser.
“Knowing that support is there when I need it, that’s so important,” she said of the cancer charity.
“I want everyone in my position to know they are not alone. It’s not common – but it’s not unheard of. Still, it’s not something people want to talk about.”
She is now looking forward to the birth of her son via an induced labor at the end of May. After giving birth, four weeks of Taxol treatment follows.
“They don’t know what will happen next, so we’ll see when the baby comes, but my doctors are hopeful,” said Ciara.
“Now that I’m halfway through, I’m used to it. I no longer feel overwhelmed or worried. It’s not as tough as I thought it would be.”