StemCell Therapy

A "brave, strong and kind" mum who gave birth while battling an aggressive cancer has died.

Louise Winstanley died in the early hours of Sunday morning after a tragic sequence of events, leaving a family devastated and five-month-old daughter Harlow and son Jaxon, two, missing their mum.

In December, the 29-year-old was eight months pregnant and after going to her GP for a routine blood test was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia.

Louises fianc Peter Doran and their family, who live in Allerton , then had to make a decision whether to induce the baby Louise was carrying or allow her to undergo treatment for the cancer.

It was decided to start her off with a course of chemotherapy but she reacted badly to the treatment and within 48 hours had suffered a heart attack and a stroke.

Because of the complications, Louise was then moved to the Manchester Royal Infirmary where all the treatment she needed was under one roof.

Her brother, Gavin Winstanley, has spoken to the ECHO about the devastating events that followed.

The 34-year-old said: When we got to Manchester in January, doctors were monitoring Louises heart and made a decision to stop the treatment and induce the baby by c-section.

Harlow was born prematurely on January 4 and taken straight into intensive care but she pulled through and is with us now, just missing her mum.

The c-section meant Louise then had to wait around three weeks for the wound to heal before any treatment could start again.

Medical professionals from London consulted with doctors and the family and a course of treatment was developed for Louise to reduce the amount of damage being done to her body.

Gavin added: She had doses of a superdrug and thankfully went into remission. We had achieved the first step and everyone was over the moon.

Louise was then able to leave hospital and spend time with baby Harlow.

A further two weeks passed and the family were told that for Louise to beat the cancer once and for all she would need a stem-cell transplant.

Her three older brothers were all tested for a match to be the donor and it turned out Gavin was.

At the end of April he gave his younger sister his stem cells in a bid to remove the cancer from her body for good.

He said: There was a two-week window for my cells to build up in Louise. It was a dangerous time because she couldnt fight any form of infection.

Gavin said two days later things started to go wrong as Louise contracted an infection which shut down her kidneys and liver.

Then, because of the damage to her heart and brain she started to bleed internally and the bleed could not be stopped. Gavin said she was overcome just before 4am on Sunday, May 14.

Her death left a void in the heart of her young family, but Gavin says they are now trying to bring something good out of a very dark time.

A gofundme link has been set up and Gavin added: We have asked people not to send flowers but to donate money and we will set up a trust fund for the kids.

We are a proud family but this was a conscious decision for the kids, we are only doing something for them to help their future.

The page reads: Louise will forever be in our hearts throughout the rest of our lives.

We will see her always in her children everyday as they grow up and make her so proud. We want her memory to live on and it will through her children.

To view the fundraising page click here.

Read this article:
Liverpool mum who gave birth while battling aggressive cancer has died aged just 29 - Liverpool Echo

This entry was posted on May 17, 2017 at 12:48 am and is filed under Death by Stem Cells. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |