Kayleigh Gilbert, 31-year-old mother-of-two, spent eight months of her life battling against – and finally fighting off myeloid leukemia, cancer that affects the body’s white blood cells. It was a difficult battle, and one that came just at the right time.
Doctors told Gilbert that if she’d discovered her cancer later, there was a chance she wouldn’t have survived. “I just went completely numb. You never think it's going to happen to you, so I was in complete shock,” Gilbert said.
Thankfully, after eight months of intense chemotherapy – but several infections and complications – Gilbert was deemed cancer free.
The main side effect she would have to live with for the rest of her life was her infertility. Gilbert’s doctors told her the chemotherapy had effectively reduced her chances of conceiving and having another child to 1%.
All of this happened two years ago.
In October 2015, Gilbert began to feel strange symptoms again – symptoms that had previously been associated with her leukemia. She began to vomit and felt weak.
While Gilbert fretted that it was her leukemia, her husband couldn’t help but suggest that perhaps she was pregnant. The symptoms did, in fact, line up with early pregnancy symptoms.
But Gilbert was reluctant to consider this option.
“I told him I wanted to go back to the GP, in case my cancer was back, and he asked me to take a pregnancy test beforehand, just in case,” she explained.
“I did and it was positive. We both sat in silence staring at it, waiting for a, "Just kidding" to flash up.”
The Gilberts returned to the doctor to run blood tests that only confirmed her pregnancy: She was almost five months pregnant with a baby boy.
In June 2016, the Gilberts – including their two daughters – welcomed a son, Eilon, to their family. Though mother Gilbert still has to undergo regular tests at the hospital to ensure her cancer doesn’t return, the family couldn’t be happier to be together, enjoying everything they have now.
