Mother with aggressive cancer gives birth to stillborn to save her life

Leanne Williams was 20 weeks’ pregnant when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Leanne is now in remission and is encouraging others to appreciate the 'simple things' in life (Collect/PA Real Life) (Leanne is now in remission and is encouraging others to appreciate the ‘simple things’ in life (Collect/PA Real Life))

A mother who was diagnosed with leukaemia while pregnant, and had to give birth to her stillborn baby to save her own life – is now in remission and encouraging others to appreciate the “simple things” in life.

Leanne Williams, 38, from Bristol, was 20 weeks’ pregnant when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) – cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow – in 2017.

Just four days after her diagnosis, she was forced to make “the horrendous decision” to give birth to her baby boy, who would not survive, to save her own life.

She then underwent months of chemotherapy, but ended up developing a blood clot on her brain – which nearly claimed her life and resulted in her being placed in an induced coma.

She reached remission before completing her chemotherapy in October 2020, but her leukaemia returned even more aggressively in December 2022, which was a “complete shock”.

By January, all treatments had failed and her only hope of survival was a trial treatment of CAR-T therapy – and after months of waiting and “not knowing”, she received this in June 2023.

She then underwent further treatment, including a stem cell transplant – which replaces damaged blood cells with healthy ones, and this helped her reach remission for a second time.

Leanne when she had mucositis, just weeks after the stem cell transplant (Collect/PA Real Life) (Leanne when she had mucositis, just weeks after the stem cell transplant (Collect/PA Real Life))

Now, celebrating six months post-transplant, Leanne wants to urge others to listen to their bodies and to enjoy the “simple things” in life as she feels lucky to be alive today.

“It’s really hard to look back on what I’ve been through, sometimes it feels surreal and I think, how did I get through it? How have I done that?” she said.

“I’m thankful to those people who were around me, like my family, and to Leukaemia Care for their help… and now I’m looking forward to a summer.

“I spent the whole summer in hospital, I didn’t see the summer last year, so I’m just looking forward to being at home and being able to go in my garden.

“It’s the simple things that you appreciate the most.”

Back in October 2017, when she was 16 weeks’ pregnant with her third child, Leanne discovered a large lump in her neck.

She managed to book an appointment with her GP, who told her to come back for blood tests in the morning, but that evening Leanne drove to A&E because she “just didn’t feel right”.

Four weeks after visiting Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), Leanne said the lump continued to increase in size, she was struggling to breathe, and other lumps were “sprouting up”.

Leanne had googled her symptoms and believed she had lymphoma – cancer that begins in cells of the lymph system – but after further tests and scans, a biopsy confirmed she had ALL.

At this point, in November 2017, when Leanne was 20 weeks’ pregnant, she was told she would have been “dead by Christmas” if she had not pushed for a diagnosis.

She was then told she needed to start treatment straight away and she would have to terminate the pregnancy in order to save herself.

Four days after the diagnosis, Leanne gave birth to her son, who was stillborn but “perfectly formed”, and she and her partner Ian, 39, named him Theo.

Baby Theo's prints (Collect/PA Real Life) (Baby Theo's prints (Collect/PA Real Life))

“First of all, I said: ‘No, I don’t want to see him, I don’t want to see the baby’, but once I’d given birth, I actually thought, I need to look at him,” she said.

“It was odd but there was a sense of peace that I did actually give birth and he was a person, and we got to name him and have his footprints, so he actually had that identity.

“If I didn’t go through that process, I wouldn’t have had that.”

Leanne, who has two children from a previous relationship – Charlie, 16, and Archie, 13 – then underwent intense chemotherapy for 11 months and reached remission in February 2018.

In June, Leanne developed a “banging headache” and she could not stay awake for longer than three hours in the day, but she believed this was related to the chemotherapy.

When she could not even dress herself, she knew “something was really wrong” – and this led to the discovery she had a blood clot on her brain, which caused her to have seizures.

She was then placed in an induced coma for several days, during which time she underwent surgery to remove the blood clot, and Leanne’s family was told to “say their goodbyes”.

The last thing Leanne remembers is telling her mother she was having a stroke before she started “fitting”.

“I woke up with a breathing tube, a feeding tube, oxygen, and I remembered everybody, which was a relief, but I had no power in my right-hand side,” she said.

“I couldn’t move my arm, I couldn’t move my leg, but gradually, that all started to come back.”

Leanne pictured at the end of July 2018 (Collect/PA Real Life) (Leanne pictured at the end of July 2018 (Collect/PA Real Life))

After recovering, Leanne underwent two years of maintenance chemotherapy, which finished in October 2020, and she remained in remission for several years.

However, she relapsed in December 2022, which was a “complete shock”, and she was “back to fighting cancer again”.

She underwent further chemotherapy, which made her hair fall out within four days, and in January 2023 she received the “devastating” news that the treatment had “done nothing”.

But Leanne was fortunate to receive CAR-T therapy – treatment for people who have not responded to chemotherapy or have relapsed – at King’s College Hospital in London in June 2023.

She remained there for three months and had further treatment, including full body radiation, chemotherapy, and a stem cell transplant, but her health started to deteriorate.

She developed mucositis – inflammation in the mouth – and she was passing blood in her urine, and she lost 15kg (2stone 4lbs) in just three weeks as she could hardly eat or drink.

“I felt terrible, I couldn’t eat, I could barely talk, I couldn’t even swallow my own saliva. It was the worst experience of my life,” she explained.

Despite nearly giving up and often “crying” alone in her hospital room, Leanne said, ultimately, the CAR-T therapy and stem cell transplant saved her life.

Now, having reached remission and the six-month post-transplant milestone, Leanne appreciates that she will “never” go back to normal, but she is enjoying celebrating the “little wins”.

Leanne having a blood transfusion while wearing a wig in April 2018 (Leanne having a blood transfusion while wearing a wig in April 2018)

She will continue to have bone marrow biopsies to monitor the leukaemia, but she is now looking ahead to the future and is even planning a family holiday abroad for next year.

Speaking about her advice to others, she said: “The biggest thing that I’ve learned is, you have to push for things, you have to push if something’s not right. Listen to your body.

“Life doesn’t go back to how it was, and it will never go back to how it was, but you get your new normal, your new routines, your new everything, and I’m really thankful for that.”

For more information and support, call Leukaemia Care’s freephone helpline on 08088 010 444, email support@leukaemiacare.org.uk, or visit its website at: leukaemiacare.org.uk.