"The kids need their mum. I can’t die. I can’t die. I can’t die…” – Lou.
For 39-year-old Lou and her family, life was busy, but it was good. It was filled with loving moments between a husband and wife, the laughter of young children and the adventure that comes from travelling the world together.
“We had this perfect little life, we were both working good jobs, working hard and balancing life with the children”
shared Lou's husband Dom.
When Lou found a small lump in her breast, the couple weren’t too concerned. She made an appointment for a check-up and scans, but wasn’t really expecting to hear the doctor say, ‘I’m very sorry to tell you, it’s cancer.’
“With the various forms of breast cancer in Australia, you jump straight on a treatment plan that has been formulated to increase survival rates,” shared Dom.
“We jumped into this process and that’s when we started to learn through her lack of positive treatment response that Lou’s rare form of cancer, called triple negative, was immune to everything the doctors administered.”
With every treatment, Lou’s condition continued to worsen as the tumour swelled in size. She underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, more chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and attempted immunotherapy. Her body couldn’t handle any more.
When they learned the cancer was metastatic and had spread to her ribs and liver, they knew her days were numbered. Their children were so young, but they had to find a way to tell them.
“Before we scheduled the chat with Noah, his teacher told us that during prayer time he had asked to pray for mummy, because her cancer was back, and it was bad,”
“It proved to us that we needed to explain to the kids every step of the way, to tell them that mummy might die, that we were doing everything to keep her alive, we might succeed but we might not either.”
Lou and Dom never gave up hope of finding a successful treatment. They even travelled the world to find one. But on 12 January 2019, Lou slipped into a coma and died in Dom’s arms shortly after.
Cancer took so much from Lou and her family. This Daffodil Day, please give to support cancer research and help find the breakthroughs needed to save lives.
We know that research works, we know it is already helping to save lives every day. While we have come such a long way, we still have so much more to do to ensure people, like Lou, can live beyond a cancer diagnosis.
