A MOTHER-of-three who was supporting her daughter through cancer treatment discovered she had breast cancer herself shortly after having another child.

Charlotte Lewis, 35, had been supporting her daughter Elizabeth through a rare form of cancer when she was diagnosed herself after giving birth to her third child Jack.

Elizabeth had faced surgery, treatments and scans at seven different hospitals – including several months having proton beam therapy in Manchester – when her mum was diagnosed.

Charlotte, from Poole, found a lump on a breast during pregnancy. Two weeks after Jack was born, it was confirmed that she had cancer.

“I cried. My first thought was would I still be able to look after my kids? Jack was only a month old, five weeks when I started chemotherapy,” she said.

While Charlotte was having chemotherapy, her sister, Teresa Emberson, also from Poole, was diagnosed with cervical cancer and at the start of lockdown their mother, Dawn Knights, of Hamworthy, had a heart attack.

Charlotte said: “I’m certain it was due to the stress of having two daughters and a granddaughter ill with cancer. It’s been a stressful time all round.”

After chemotherapy Charlotte had a mastectomy in January 2019, followed by radiotherapy treatment.

Just a year after Charlotte had finished her treatment, Elizabeth, then just eight, had to have her right eye removed after several operations over many years failed to rid her of her rare cancer.

Charlotte said: “The day she went in for surgery was the most horrendous day of my life. She panicked when she first saw all the medics wearing their PPE.

“She needed further surgery to remove residual cancer cells but the first time she looked at herself in the mirror – when she had healed enough for the dressings to come off – she looked very proud of herself.

“She should be. She has coped with everything brilliantly, especially as her more recent treatment was done during lockdown.”

Mother and daughter are now free of cancer, although Charlotte will continue with hormone therapy for the foreseeable future.

Charlotte has already signed up for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life this year in Poole and she is keen to encourage others to join her.

The event will take place at Baiter Park, Poole on Saturday, September 11, and is open to people of all ages and abilities, including 3K, 5K and 10K events as well as Pretty Muddy.

Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life raises millions of pounds every year to help beat cancer by funding crucial research. 

Visit raceforlife.org to enter. If any Race for Life events are cancelled, people will be entitled to a refund of their entry fee or can choose to donate the fee to help fund Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work.