One Morning, a Pregnant Woman Couldn't Walk – At First It Seemed Minor, but Doctors Later Said She Had 12 Months Left

In 2021, she was healthy and excited about starting a family with her partner. Nearly four years later, she is navigating life with a rare, aggressive illness, pursuing every treatment available while creating lasting memories for the daughter she once feared she might never meet.

It began with a symptom that seemed more inconvenient than alarming, a sudden loss of mobility on an otherwise ordinary morning. Within days, the search for answers would reveal a condition so rare and aggressive that doctors were forced to measure her time in months, not years.

She was a young expectant mother whose days should have been filled with nursery plans and baby kicks, not scans and medical briefings. In the months that followed, her world became a delicate balance of protecting new life while fighting for her own, and of holding on to hope even when the prognosis left little room for it.

Symptoms That Didn't Add Up

In September 2021, at just 20 weeks pregnant, Laura Mahon woke to find she couldn't walk. Along with the sudden immobility came waves of nausea and an unusual sensitivity to bright light. At the hospital, doctors believed her baby might be lying on a nerve, a common cause of discomfort during pregnancy.

An MRI of her spine was ordered to check for pressure or damage, but the scan came back clear. That should have been reassuring, yet her symptoms persisted, and the unexplained weakness in her legs remained.

A second MRI, this time of her brain, was scheduled. By then, Laura was 24 weeks along. Just five minutes into the scan, the machine stopped, and staff briefly pulled her out. They had already seen something and needed to examine it more closely.

She was placed back inside for what felt like an eternity, able to see into the radiology room as more doctors appeared and gathered around the images. When the test ended, Laura was led into a private room with her mother. It was there she heard the words that marked the start of a fight she never imagined facing: there was a tumor in her brain.

The doctors believed it had likely been there for years, quietly growing, and had only now begun to cause symptoms. Because she was pregnant, they couldn't use contrast dye to determine the tumor's grade, but they knew it was a glioma.

The Race Against Time

By 27 weeks into her pregnancy, Laura's condition had worsened. What had begun as difficulty walking was now accompanied by a loss of feeling in her right arm. The tumor was spreading, and her symptoms were becoming harder to manage. Doctors knew they had to act quickly to protect both mother and baby.

At 30 weeks, the decision was made to deliver her daughter early. On November 30, 2021, Laura underwent a C-section under general anesthesia. Sienna Grace entered the world at just 3.4 pounds — tiny, but alive. The joy of her birth quickly gave way to concern as complications arose.

Sienna developed a pneumothorax, or collapsed lung, within days and needed more advanced care than the hospital could provide. She was transferred to Oldham Hospital, where she was placed in a higher-level neonatal unit.

Laura and her husband, Danny, began making daily trips between Oldham and the Walton Centre in Liverpool, where Laura was undergoing her medical assessments. It was an exhausting routine for new parents, compounded by the emotional weight of having a newborn in intensive care while facing Laura's uncertain future.

A Devastating Confirmation

On December 10, 2021, less than two weeks after giving birth, Laura was scheduled for brain surgery at the Walton Centre in Liverpool. This time, doctors were able to use contrast dye during her MRI, and the results brought grim news: the tumor had grown significantly since her last scan.

Its location deep within the brain made it impossible to remove entirely. Instead of the operation they had hoped for, surgeons were able to take only a small biopsy and remove between ten and 15 percent of the mass. The sample was sent for analysis, and Laura returned home to wait for the results.

Just days before Christmas, she received her diagnosis. It was a stage 4 glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. Glioblastoma, often referred to as GBM, is a grade IV brain tumor that develops in glial cells called astrocytes, found in the brain and spinal cord.

The cancer grows and spreads rapidly, invading healthy tissue. There is no cure, but treatments can sometimes improve the quality of life or extend survival. Without treatment, glioblastoma can lead to death within months. With care, most patients live an average of 12 to 18 months after diagnosis, and only about five percent survive for five years.

Clinical trials are ongoing, exploring targeted therapies and methods of delivering chemotherapy directly to the tumor. For Laura, the prognosis was clear: even with treatment, her time would be limited. Yet she and her husband, Danny, refused to let the diagnosis dictate every moment.

Their days were now split between caring for Sienna in the neonatal unit and preparing for the difficult treatments ahead, determined to make the most of whatever time they had together.

Fighting Back with Every Option

In January 2022, Laura began an intensive treatment plan at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool. The schedule was relentless — six weeks of daily radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy. After just ten days, doctors had to halt the chemotherapy when her liver began to fail, but she continued with the full course of radiotherapy, completing it in February.

The early results offered a glimmer of hope. A follow-up scan showed the tumor had responded to the radiotherapy, and Laura moved to a six-month regimen of the chemotherapy drug temozolomide, taken for one week each month. The routine was grueling, especially for a new mother, but she was willing to endure anything that might buy her more time.

At home, Danny shouldered much of the childcare, waking every three hours to feed Sienna so Laura could rest. Their parents took turns visiting to help in the mornings before Laura's hospital appointments. "I was just so tired and so poorly," she recalled, describing those early months of balancing new motherhood with cancer treatment.

For a while, the approach seemed to be working. But in December 2022, the tumor returned, this time on the other side of her brain. Doctors prescribed lomustine, a second-line chemotherapy, but after two cycles, Laura suffered a seizure. An emergency scan revealed the drug was ineffective. She was moved to procarbazine, her third NHS-funded chemotherapy, knowing there was only one more available option after this.

Hospital Life vs. Family Life

As the months passed, Laura and Danny learned to live in two worlds. One was filled with MRI scans, blood tests, and the uncertainty of ever-changing treatment plans. The other revolved around their daughter, now a toddler, and the effort to keep her childhood untouched by the reality of brain cancer.

They found that keeping hospital life separate from home life helped them all. At home, they focused on simple pleasures — day trips, playtime, and making memories. "We just do nice things as a family," Laura explained. "We make memories, and we just try with each day. We just take each day as it comes, really."

Sienna, too young to understand the medical details, knew her parents were always nearby and engaged. Laura and Danny created a memory box and scrapbooks for her, documenting family moments and milestones. Laura also began sharing her journey publicly, both to raise awareness of glioblastoma and to ensure her daughter would one day see that her parents had done everything they could.

The effort to maintain normalcy came at a cost. Every hospital admission meant reorganizing family life, and every setback threatened the careful balance they had built. Yet Laura and Danny approached each challenge with the same determination: to give Sienna a joyful and secure childhood, no matter the circumstances.

Major Setbacks and Small Victories

In January 2023, Laura faced another blow: scans showed the tumor had spread again. She began a second course of radiotherapy, knowing it could only be used sparingly because of its long-term effects. Not long after, she contracted COVID-19, which worsened her symptoms and landed her in the hospital for ten days.

New scans revealed swelling in her brain, and the illness left her even more vulnerable. Seizures became more frequent, interrupting daily life and further limiting her mobility. Over time, she lost the use of her right arm and leg entirely. Yet, amid these challenges, there were bright spots.

In August 2023, after starting alternative treatments alongside her NHS care, Laura received unexpected news: her tumor was stable and had even shrunk slightly. The update brought hope at a time when options were running out. Laura and Danny made the most of that reprieve.

They took Sienna to CBeebies Land, renewed their wedding photos in October 2023, and continued to speak publicly about brain cancer awareness. Laura was honored with the St Helens Courage Award, and the couple was invited to help open the new Imaging Centre at Edge Hill University, a multimillion-pound facility aimed at improving diagnosis and treatment access in the North West.

These moments reminded Laura that while the disease was relentless, it could not take away every victory. Each achievement, no matter how small, became another entry in Sienna's scrapbook and another memory for the family.

When the NHS Options Run Out

By mid-2024, Laura's health had entered a more fragile stage. In June, she was rushed to the hospital after experiencing more than 50 seizures over just three days. Initially taken to the emergency department, doctors struggled to break the cycle of seizures, and she was admitted to the Walton Centre for a week of inpatient care.

Despite the setback, Laura managed to fulfill a long-held wish: attending Taylor Swift's concert in Liverpool. With the support of her medical team and local hospital staff, she was well enough to go, an experience that brought her and her family a rare moment of pure joy. But the following months brought harsher news.

In August, during an MRI scan, Laura suffered a severe seizure and was transferred to the Clinical Decisions Unit for monitoring. Later that week, the scan results showed the tumor had grown substantially. Her bloodwork and liver function were also deteriorating. Doctors explained that she had reached the end of NHS treatment options.

It was the moment she and Danny had long feared. Still unwilling to give up, the couple began urgently raising funds for private treatments. These included clinical trials in London and the rental of an oxygen machine at home, costing more than $1000 a month, in the hope of easing symptoms and potentially slowing the cancer's progression.

Their GoFundMe campaign drew wide support, raising over $26,000 toward their $67,000 goal. For Laura, every amount represented not just treatment, but time to make more memories with Sienna and the rest of her family.

Laura's life after her diagnosis has been a constant balancing act, managing the demands of treatment while nurturing the milestones of her young family. She and Danny have learned to take each day as it comes, focusing on moments of joy rather than the uncertainty ahead. "We just try and focus on her happiness," Laura said of Sienna. "We just try and keep going, keep positive."