As soon as I heard the word cancer, I assumed my life was over. It was such a shock because I had no idea there was anything wrong with me at all. I put my tiredness down to the fact that I was heavily pregnant and running around after my eldest, Kathryn.
What busy mother doesn't feel exhausted and look pale first thing in the morning? But the day after Michael was born, via Caesarean section at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, I noticed a dull ache on the right side of my back. Just 24 hours later, it had become agonising.
When the nurse rolled me over to adjust my catheter, I screamed out in pain and started to cry. I felt as though someone had stabbed me with a red hot knife.
Concerned, the nurse fetched the doctor immediately. He examined me and said he wanted me to have an X-ray and a scan. From that point, everything happened incredibly quickly.
Later that day, the doctor came back and held up the scan in front of me. I'm no medical expert, but I could tell instantly something was terribly wrong and looked at the image in front of me in horror.
While one kidney was neat and round and looked the size of a plum, the other was swollen and cabbage-shaped. The doctor said straight away it looked like kidney cancer, and I'd have to have an operation.
I sat on my bed feeling totally stunned. My husband David had been delayed at work, so I had no one there to support me. I remember staring at Michael, lying in his cot sleeping. All sorts of thoughts ran through my head, the main one being that I wouldn't be able to see him grow up.
I couldn't believe that one of the happiest times of my life had been shattered so instantly.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a haze as doctors prodded and examined me. It was only when David arrived in the evening that I allowed myself to break down and cry. I couldn't understand how this could happen to us at a time when everything had seemed so perfect.
It was two weeks before they the cancer treatment thatmeans womencan still have children could do the operation on my kidney and I was sent home with painkillers to make me more comfortable.
Future fears
Half the time, I was so busy with caring for my baby that I was able to forget about what was happening. But then suddenly the reality would hit me and I'd sob as I thought of the future.
The operation to remove my kidney and some of my lymph nodes took around four hours. Afterwards, although I was relieved the diseased organ was gone, I was in a lot of pain.
With the large scar stretching across my back and round my side almost joining with the scar left by my Caesarean, just a fortnight earlier, I felt like I'd been through a war. I spent a week in hospital and then came home. I was so tender and weak from both operations I could hardly do anything around the house.
Thankfully, David was able to take three months off work to help look after the children, and Kathryn, who was only five, was incredible, too. She didn't really understand what was wrong with me, but she started calling herself 'Daddy's little helper' and doing whatever she could.
After my operation, I was referred to the care of oncologists at the Christie Hospital in Manchester. I was advised that rather than following up with chemotherapy, as is common in most cancer treatments, I should have what is known as immunotherapy, or biological therapy.
My oncologist explained that the immune system can also play a central role in both protecting the body against cancer, and combating cancer that has already developed.
The treatment stimulates the immune system to fight the disease itself by using substances found naturally in the body, which can now be synthesised in the laboratory and used in large quantities to treat cancer.
Immunotherapy has been proven to be especially effective against kidney cancer that has either spread to other parts of the body or is at high risk of coming back.
It has been around for over a decade but is still in its trial phases because results are mixed and unpredictable.
Doctors aren't completely sure why it works well for some people but has less positive results for others. In my case it was thought immunotherapy could help reduce the risk of my cancer returning after surgery.
Side effects
Side effects are not as severe as chemotherapy and are similar to those of flu such as chills, fever, headache, tiredness and aching in the joints and back. I'd presumed all along I'd need chemotherapy, but I was prepared to follow the oncologist's advice.
I was made aware, that unlike chemotherapy, it would not affect my fertility, although I didn't dare dream I could become pregnant again at that stage.
I was told I would have to inject myself with my immunotherapy treatment three times a week, either through my stomach or the top of my leg. I chose the latter as it seemed less gruesome and a nurse at the hospital showed me how to do it. Although I lost some hair, lost weight and the drugs left me feeling sick and tired, much of the time I was able to carry on almost as normal.
On the doctor's advice, I took a paracetamol tablet after injecting myself and slept off many of the symptoms, just as I would have done with a bad cold. I quickly grew used to injecting myself, and once ended up sneaking into a toilet while out walking in the Yorkshire Dales to give myself treatment.
Even so, it was difficult to escape totally a nagging voice in the back of my mind, which told me my cancer could return at any moment, and there were many occasions when I became very depressed and tearful. I found returning to hospital for scans, which I had to do every six weeks, terrifying.
Thankfully, each one showed my cancer had not returned, and my oncologist gradually increased the length of time between appointments. In September 2004, I was given the all-clear and told I could stop injecting myself.
That Christmas, David and I started talking about trying for another baby. But we decided to wait for another six months to give my body enough time to regain strength and ensure all the drugs had been cleared from my system.
I was over the moon when I fell pregnant with Simon last summer. It seemed amazing that after all I'd been through I was still able to conceive with relative ease.
I now return to the hospital only once a year for check-ups, but I feel positive that the cancer will not return.
Simon's birth felt like a turning point for me. In his new life, I've been given a second chance which I'm determined to make the most of.
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