When asked, most parents would say they would give up their life for their kids, but a vast majority of us would never be in the position to have to make that call, anyway. But one UK mother did have to make that heartbreaking decision, and she chose to sacrifice her own life to save her unborn baby. About four months along in her pregnancy, Lorraine Allard was diagnosed with cancer of the liver — and it was in advanced stages. The only way to provide her a chance for survival was to start chemotherapy right away — a move that would necessitate the termination of her pregnancy. Allard decided instead to wait, saying that, “If I am going to die, my baby is going to live.” Her baby was born prematurely at 25 weeks, on November 18. Allard start treatment immediately after, but it was too late. Allard died last week. What a heartbreaking story…
Mr Allard, 34, an oil field technician from St Olaves, near near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and his 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,” Mr Allard said. But in October last year, Mrs Allard started getting stomach cramps and tests at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston revealed her liver was riddled with malignant tumours.
It is believed the disease spread from bowel cancer that had been growing unnoticed for years. Mr Allard said: “The doctors said they couldn’t do anything because she was pregnant. She told them straight away they were not going to get rid of it. She’d have lost the will to fight.”
His wife went into labour just a couple of weeks after the diagnosis and gave birth at the Norfolk and Norwich University NHS Hospital in Norwich.
“He was so tiny, just 1lb 11oz, so the nurse grabbed him and allowed Lorraine to give him a little kiss before he was taken to an incubator,” Mr Allard said.
