Mum who ‘cried for a week’ after getting cancer during pregnancy gives birth to healthy baby

A woman has shared her devastation after being diagnosed with cancer just weeks after finding out she was pregnant.

Arina Zandberg had spent years hoping to fall pregnant with her second child, and give her five-year-old daughter Anke a sibling, but struggled to conceive.

The 39-year-old, from Kimberly, South Africa, underwent hormone treatment and artificial insemination, and was overjoyed to fall pregnant last year – but shortly afterwards, discovered a lump on her neck.

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The lump led to a diagnosis of stage two Hodgkin Lymphoma – a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic symptom.

The mum was faced with the daunting decision of whether or not to have chemotherapy treatment immediately and risk the pregnancy, or delay until after the birth.

“I cried for a whole week,” said Arina, a minister.

“It was hard to hear I had cancer.

“But it was worse to hear we could lose the baby.

“Our dream was coming true and then we got this shocking news.

“The risk was just too great that the cancer would spread and become life-threatening, and then I wouldn’t be there to raise her.

“We had to make tough choices – what was safe enough for her? And what was the right thing for me to do so we both could survive?”

Both Arina and husband Dirk, 38, come from large families, prompting them to want a second child to play with Anke – but after months of trying, they were told they had just 12% chance of conceiving naturally.

Arina said: “We kind of tried to make peace with the fact that maybe it wasn’t meant to be and that everything was going to be OK.”

After the hormone treatment and artificial insemination, the couple were thrilled to discover they were expecting.

When Arina discovered the lump weeks later, the mum initially thought it was just from where her handbag was rubbing against her skin.

But after getting checked at the doctors and undergoing an ultrasound and biopsy, she was stunned to her how serious the situation was.

The cancer was in her neck, chest and abdomen, reports What’s The Jam.

Dirk said: “We had this great joy and then suddenly this bitter news.

“Everything we’d hoped for could all just go away.”

Doctors advised Arina to start treatment whilst pregnant as the cancer has a better outcome if caught at an early stage.

Just 17 weeks into her pregnancy, the mum was set to start chemotherapy to treat the disease.

She said: “The doctor adjusted the dose a bit and he altered some of the steroids, but ultimately I got the full chemo.

“I just couldn’t take the medicine for side effects because it could’ve affected the baby.

“I couldn’t get the stuff against nausea.

“I had to go through it in a natural way.”

Commending his wife’s strength, Dirk said: “I don’t think there was a single day that my wife told me, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore, I can’t’.

“She really fought as hard as she could.

“She never gave up.”

Having completed 10 out of 12 chemotherapy sessions, Arina gave birth to her second daughter, Jana, on 24 April 2024 via C-section, with no complications from her cancer treatment.

Arina said: “She only cried twice and then they took her away and I heard nothing more.

“When they later told me she was OK, such a burden was lifted from me.”

She isn’t able to breastfeed as a result of the treatment, but is otherwise able to settle back into her life at home.

Arina said of big sister Anke: “She does everything for her.

“She’s already helped change a dirty nappy and she gives her milk, and carries her around.”

Arina had her final chemo session last month (May 2024) and later this month will have a scan to see how her health is.

She said: “My oncologist is very positive.

“He believes we’ve won, we just must make sure there isn’t anything left behind.”

Weighing in on what his family has been through, Dirk added: “Yes, I was angry,”

“I think anyone in a situation like this asks, ‘Why’?

“But now here I am with two little miracles: our little one and my wife.”

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