This is the moment I told my loved ones I was cancer-free
Watch: Mum films the moment she told her friends and family she was cancer-free
A mum has shared the touching moment she told her family and friends she is cancer free, after being diagnosed with lymphoma when she was pregnant with daughter Ophelia, now two.
"It was such an incredible moment," Zoe Plastiras, 25, a beautician from Buckinghamshire explains. "I was in tears. You think getting pregnant or married are the best things to happen to you, but nothing will top me hearing that I am cancer-free."
To help break the news via Facetime, Zoe bought her daughter a t-shirt with the words 'My mum beat cancer' across it and showed that to the camera. "My friends and family were so excited - it was an emotional moment," Zoe continues. "I feel like I have started a new life."
In September 2022, Zoe was 32 weeks into her pregnancy when she woke up struggling to breathe. Having called 111, Zoe was told to go to A&E where she underwent a chest X-ray and an MRI scan.
Doctors discovered a 12cm tumour in Zoe's chest, but were unable to determine whether it was cancerous or not until she gave birth.
"They told me I had a tumour but said they were happy for my pregnancy to continue as normal," she says. "They actually used the word 'mass' so it didn't really correlate. I asked if they were testing me for cancer and I was so shocked to learn they were as I had no symptoms."
Zoe said she was told that she had a 1% chance of being diagnosed with lymphoma because she wasn't presenting with any typical symptoms, which include fatigue, night sweats and unexplained weight loss. But that seemed to change when her Ophelia was born via C-Section at 37 weeks on October 4, 2022.
"Once Ophelia was out I lost weight very quickly, I thought it was weird," Zoe explains. "I went from being 11st with my pregnancy weight to being 9st 2lbs - the weight just fell off me. It's like my pregnancy masked the symptoms, and once I had Ophelia it was like the cancer took over."
In December that year, just two months after giving birth, Zoe underwent a biopsy which revealed she had lymphoma - a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system. "I got the diagnosis and made sure I tried to enjoy myself," she says of the holidays that year. "As a cancer patient you're always thinking 'what if this is my last Christmas?'. But I had this awful wait [to find out about treatment options]. It was one of the worst times of my life."
In the new year, Zoe started on the first of six rounds of chemotherapy that shrunk the tumour down from 12cm to 1cm. She then went on to have radiotherapy and waited three months to find out if the cancer had gone. "I got the results after Ophelia's first birthday and I thought I was going to be cancer free," she says. "But they revealed the tumour had grown to 2.5cm. I was devastated, I couldn't believe it."
As well as in hospital chemotherapy, in July 2024 Zoe started on CAT T-cell therapy - treatment in which a patient's T cells are changed in the laboratory to attack cancer cells - and spent two weeks in hospital. "I had no major side effects which was good," she says. "Some people have no side effects and some people will end up in ICU. I had flu-like symptoms and fatigue for four days out of the 14 days I was in hospital for."
After the treatment finished, a PET scan showed that the cancer had responded well to the treatment. And, on October 16, 2024, Zoe got the news she had been hoping for when doctors revealed she is cancer now free.
While she told her mum and dad face to face, she came up with the idea of telling the rest of her close friends and family via Facetime. "It was an amazing feeling," she says.
Now that she has had the all-clear Zoe is looking forward to the family's future, starting with enjoying the Christmas festivities. "Christmas is going to be amazing," she says. "For the past two years, we haven't had any decorations in the house as I haven't felt like celebrating. This year we are going all out. I have already started buying decorations."
Zoe is keen to raise awareness for lymphoma through her social media channels @zoeplastiras on TikTok and Instagram @lymphomawarenesszoe.
Additional reporting SWNS.
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