Pregnant mum induced early for double mastectomy after breast cancer diagnosis ‘grateful to be alive’ as son turns one

A mother who was told she had three cancerous tumours in her right breast while pregnant with her first child and felt like “a patchwork doll” after having two mastectomies just weeks after being induced early to deliver her son has said she is “grateful to be alive” ahead of his first birthday next month.

Rhiannon Baxter, 35, a pharmacy care coordinator who lives in Wallasey, in the Wirral, said her breasts felt “tender” when she was approximately 34 weeks pregnant.

Given her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer and her grandfather and uncle had died of cancer, Rhiannon was urged to “get it checked” – and within two weeks, she was booked in for her first appointment at Clatterbridge Hospital, where she underwent a scan followed by several biopsies and mammograms.

After the first scan, she was handed a Macmillan card by a breast cancer nurse, who informed her the lump may be “sinister” – and weeks later, she received the devastating news she had invasive cancer.

“I just thought, I can’t die, I have too many people to live for.”

In order to “get the ball rolling” with treatments, Rhiannon was induced at 38 weeks pregnant, which is considered full-term, and she gave birth to her “perfect” son Alvie, now 11 months, on September 22 2022.

“It was the worst week of my life waiting for those results, because I thought, if it has spread anywhere else, I can’t do it; if it’s just breast cancer, I can do this,” she said.

When the “brilliant” news came that the cancer had not spread, Rhiannon was delighted, but she then had to undergo 15 rounds of chemotherapy and then three weeks of radiotherapy, which made her feel fatigued and lose 50% of her hair.

“I want to celebrate Alvie’s first birthday, I want to take him on holiday, and I want to take him swimming and all sorts,” she said.

“To me, that’s what I want to do, and if something good can come out of what happened to me, or I can prevent someone else going through what I did, then this has happened to me for a reason.

Rhiannon explained that her mother Lorraine Kenny, 62, was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer at 41 and underwent a single mastectomy – and two decades later, “she is still here”.

Watching her mother go through her cancer journey with such positivity and strength, Rhiannon thought, “I can do this as well”, when she received her diagnosis.

“I had a panic attack before the first procedure and I couldn’t speak, but the second time, I just thought, I’ve done this before, let’s get it out of me before it spreads,” she said.

Rhiannon said she has always been described as “the strongest one in the family”, however, there was one moment after the two mastectomies where she ended up “sobbing” in front of her husband Dan.

“He said, ‘What’s the matter?’ And I said, ‘You’re 36 years old, and you’re bathing your wife in a bath with no breasts, this is not fair, this is not fair on you’.

“He just said, ‘But I don’t care, it doesn’t bother me, I don’t see you like that’, and because he’s so loving and so amazing about it all, I’ve become a lot more confident with it.”

Moreover, she knew she “had to survive for Alvie”, and this helped her through her chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

Rhiannon said she felt fatigued and lost her eyelashes and leg and armpit hairs, but as a result of using a cold cap during chemotherapy, she was “never completely bald”.

Rhiannon finished her treatment in June 2023 and no longer has any evidence of cancer – and although she is receiving ongoing hormone treatment to prevent recurrence and taking several medications, she has been told she will “live a long life” and is looking forward to the future with her family and friends.

She plans to have breast reconstruction surgery later on to help her “feel like me again”, and looks forward to enjoying life with Dan and Alvie.

“When I was pregnant, I thought I was invincible,” Rhiannon said.

“If you are worried that you’ve got a lump or anything, go and get it checked because it’s better to catch it earlier – and just remember, having cancer is not a death sentence.”

Rhiannon is supporting Breast Cancer Now’s wear it pink fundraising day on October 20 2023 to raise awareness of breast cancer and help raise money for life-changing research and support.

To find out more, visit: wearitpink.org