From the highs of delivering your first baby to the lows of hearing ‘you have a blood cancer’

Kaz should have been snuggling into her newborn baby, gazing into her eyes as she fed but instead, she was being infused with chemotherapy. A substance so toxic she couldn’t even hold her beautiful baby girl without wearing rubber gloves and a hospital gown. Her diagnosis came as a complete surprise, she attributed her persistent cough to a random pregnancy side effect, never did cancer come to mind. The day after giving birth her doctor ordered an X-ray that could not be conducted while she was pregnant. One test led to another until the diagnosis came. You have a blood cancer, B-cell lymphoma to be exact. Shockingly, Kaz was no stranger to blood cancers, she had lost her dad to myeloma in 2002.

She had gone from the ultimate high to the ultimate low. She should have been entering the foggy world of newborn sleepless nights not the daunting reality of 3 weekly chemotherapy cycles. Most days she was just too tired and weak to be able to hold her beautiful baby, despite desperately wanting nothing more. She endured 6 rounds of 3 weekly chemotherapy before commencing daily radiation for 4 weeks. She lost her hair but gained a new perspective on life.

Eight months on Kaz received the best news ever. She is in remission. It doesn’t get much better than that. She wants people to know how important supporting blood cancer research is. “This cruel disease can strike anyone at any time, if we don’t give there is no progress and no hope for the future”. She wants to live a longer, better life just as much as she wants others affected by blood cancer to live longer, better lives.