Mother Chooses To Die Of Cancer In Order To Save Unborn Baby’s Life
Daily Mail:
Four months into her pregnancy, Lorraine Allard was devastated to learn she was in the advanced stages of cancer.
Doctors advised her to have an abortion and start chemotherapy straight away.
Instead, with steadfast courage, she insisted on waiting long enough to give her unborn son a chance to survive, telling her husband Martyn: “If I am going to die, my baby is going to live.”
A caesarean delivery was scheduled at 26 weeks, but Mrs Allard went into premature labour a week before and Liam was born on November 18.
She then started chemotherapy, but died on January 18 - having left her bed a handful of times to cuddle her son beside his incubator.
“Lorraine was positive all the way through - she had strength for both of us,” Mr Allard said yesterday.
“Towards the end we knew things weren’t going well, but she was overjoyed that she had given life to Liam.”
The 34-year-old oilfield technician from St Olaves, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and his 33-year-old wife already had three daughters - Leah, ten, Amy, eight, and Courtney, 20 months - when they learned they were expecting their first boy.
“We were going to have the full set and didn’t plan to have any more children after that,” said Mr Allard.
But in October last year, his wife started suffering stomach cramps and tests at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston revealed tumours on her liver.
It is believed the disease spread from bowel cancer that had been growing unnoticed for years.
“The doctors said they couldn’t do anything because she was pregnant,” said Mr Allard.
“She told them straight away they were not going to get rid of the baby. She’d have lost the will to fight.”
Mrs Allard went into labour a couple of weeks after the diagnosis and gave birth at the Norfolk and Norwich University NHS Hospital in Norwich.
“Liam was so tiny, just 1lb 11oz, so the nurse picked him up and allowed Lorraine to give him a little kiss before he was taken to an incubator,” said Mr Allard.
“She was so emotional. She had been so determined to give him the best chance and was happy that he had been born naturally, which meant she wouldn’t have to recover for a couple of weeks after a caesarean before beginning the chemotherapy.”
The treatment began almost immediately and Mrs Allard spent her time recuperating at home, apart from four visits to her newborn son.
The first was when he was two weeks old, during which a treasured photo of her cuddling him was taken.
Liam has responded well to his care and it is hoped he will be sent home from hospital in early March.
But his mother’s health started to deteriorate just before Christmas and a scan on January 17 revealed the tumours were still growing.
She died the following day. Mr Allard said: “The doctors had said the cancer was no longer curable, although they were trying to shrink the tumours - which they thought might give her a couple of years.
“On the day Lorraine died, she hadn’t eaten for two weeks and couldn’t drink.
“I laid beside her and she was gripping my hand quite tight.
“We were like that for about half an hour. I could feel against my chest that her heart was slowing down. She just slipped away after that. It was very peaceful.
“When Liam is old enough, I won’t tell him that Lorraine gave her life for him, but I will say she made sure he had a good chance of life.
“She told me she didn’t want him to feel bad about it.”
Mrs Allard’s father, Tom Berry, said: “I was overwhelmed by the way Lorraine took it.
“She lived for her husband and children. She was a big personality with a heart of gold.”
Babies born at 25 weeks have a 50 per cent chance of survival.
This goes down to 39 per cent at 24 weeks and 17 per cent - or a one in six chance - at 23 weeks.
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Incredible story. I am curious to see if the women libers will champion her sacrifice or the opposite. As my wife and I read this we both looked at out children and cried. God bless this mother and may God look after her family. We have a new hero in our lives.
Brian
January 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pmThis has a personal affect on me; in 2002 my dear mother perished from a malignant brain tumor (front right lobe (I was 16 at the time)); she was diagnosed in Dec. 2001 (what a year that was). How I feel about mothers: every decent man in this great nation of ours could serve 500 combat tours of duty to protect their moms, and it still wouldn’t totally repay the debt we owe them (but it’s a start). This is coming from a son who is almost certain that he is/was the favorite of both parents. Let me say this: THANK GOD FOR MY MOM, AND THANK GOD FOR EVERY MOM WHO DOES THEIR BEST TO REAR THEIR CHILDREN IN THE BEST WAY THEY CAN!!! In a society that seemingly treats pregnancy as a disease more and more every day, these noble women overcome that. Some may call me a “misogynistic hate-monger”, but I say, this woman in this article represents the best that humanity has to offer.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:54 pmThis woman is the true definition of what being a mother is all about. Sacrificing EVERYTHING to ensure your children come first.
January 26th, 2008 at 12:05 amJim - - you reading this one?
A.S. I’m sure you made her proud.
January 26th, 2008 at 1:25 amMark it’s beautiful and honorable
January 26th, 2008 at 6:39 amIt’s easy to run the numbers and see that if all the aborted babies since 1973 had instead been alive our social security problem would be much less and the need for all the illegal aliens likely would have never developed or at least to far lesser extent. Approximately 45 million American citizens. Most who were conceived before 1989 would be either in college, the workforce or the military. Thats about 21 million or so.
That woman is truly unbeleivable, so counter to where western culture is today.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:07 amRest easy, dear woman. Rest in peace. Motherhood is a gift of God, and she used it well.
Very humbling.
January 26th, 2008 at 7:16 am“Greater love hath no man (or woman) than to give his/her life for a friend.” This woman is a genuine hero.
January 26th, 2008 at 8:14 amIt speaks volumes about where we have arrived as a society when a mother putting her childs life ahead of hers is an exception rather than a rule. Even most animals will defend their offspring to their own peril.
“I can’t stand that I live in a culture, especially in Hollywood, where measure of man is self-indulgence.” — Pat Dollard
January 26th, 2008 at 10:02 amAnd therein lies “the meaning of life” …
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acu -
Quoting the Dollard, eh? It truly IS a great quote, Pat.
January 26th, 2008 at 1:41 pmDrill - Pat says it better in one sentence than I could in a page-long paragraph. I’m really, really starting to come to the realization Pat is one of the better thinkers of our time. And I don’t say that lightly. I like his cultural “acumen”
January 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pmacu -
Pat’s quote brought to my mind this one:
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. - Mother Teresa
January 26th, 2008 at 2:58 pmCan’t go wrong with Mother Teresa Drill (unless you’re Hillary that is - LMAO) :).
“The Clinton campaign removed a photograph of Hillary Clinton with Mother Teresa from a campaign video after a complaint from the late nun’s religious order, a Clinton spokesman said.”
“Teresa’s successor at the Superior General of the India-based Missionaries of Charity. Fidelis president Joseph Cella called it “wholly inappropriate, disrespectful and disturbing that Hillary Clinton shamelessly exploited Mother’s image as a political tool.”
January 27th, 2008 at 12:23 pm