How Queensland couple who are both battling cancer defied doctor’s expectations to have children

A couple who received extremely rare and devastating cancer diagnoses defied their doctor’s expectations to have two children.

Tony Cook, 54, was given just three months to live when doctors found a three-inch tumor in his brain in 2019.

Doctors told him and his wife Samantha, 36, from inland Queensland, that they had a one-week window to try for children before their grueling treatment began.

Miraculously, she became pregnant. But the couple was plunged into new despair when Samantha was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at her 14-week scan and doctors had to remove one ovary.

The couple, who live in Blackall, south-east of Longreach, now have two children under the age of five and Tony continues to exceed doctors’ expectations.

“Ovarian cancer is normally never detected until an advanced stage, so we were very lucky,” Samantha told Daily Mail Australia.

“Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Tony’s terminal diagnosis, we wouldn’t have gotten pregnant and found ovarian cancer.”

Their world was first turned upside down when they were on a motorcycle holiday in 2019 after a six-month stint at a sheep station where Tony worked as a shearer and Samantha as a wool sorter.

“I woke up one morning and Tony was drenched in sweat and then he started throwing up,” he said.

‘I got an ambulance to take him to the hospital. They sent us home twice because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her.

‘That night it was like I was possessed, it was so bad. He couldn’t calm down, so he took him back to the Chinchilla hospital, where they kept him for three days, but they couldn’t find out what was wrong with him.

Finally, they did a CT scan and told Samantha to take him to the emergency unit in Toowoomba.

“They told us he had a three-inch brain tumor and he was airlifted to Brisbane where he was operated on within 24 hours.”

Tony got out of the hospital four days later because he’s pretty tough. They told us that he was only three months old.

The couple had originally planned to have children at some point, but doctors told them they only had three weeks before Tony began radiation and chemotherapy treatment.

‘We were going to go to a fertility clinic but I got pregnant almost immediately. You could say it was a bit of a miracle.

But at Samantha’s 12-week scan, doctors discovered a tumor on her left ovary, which was early-stage ovarian cancer.

‘I had to have surgery at 14 weeks to remove the ovary and fallopian tube. It was exactly three months after Tony’s surgery.

“There was a risk of losing the baby, but they had to take it away.”

Dr Nimithri Cabraal, a gynecological oncologist at Mater Hospital Brisbane, removed Ms Cook’s left ovary and a fallopian tube to prevent the cancer from spreading.

“We only see a handful of young women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Mater each year and maybe only one or two who are pregnant,” said Dr. Cabraal. the courier mail.

‘I operated on Samantha during her second trimester to reduce the risk of miscarriage. She was a small tumor and we have not seen evidence of recurrence.’

Fortunately, baby Wyatt was born healthy and fit in June 2020. He is now two and a half years old.

Despite only having one ovary, Samantha became pregnant again in early 2022, and Aspen was born in September of last year.

But the day after his birth, the couple received the devastating news that Tony had another tumor.

It had grown from three millimeters to nearly six centimeters in just three months.

The doctors operated on in November last year and Tony is currently undergoing a six month treatment course traveling round trip to Brisbane, a 10-hour drive away, for her chemotherapy every three months. –

“If you knew Tony, you wouldn’t know that he’s been battling terminal brain cancer for almost three years,” Samantha said.

His cancer is a very rare form. He is considered a long-term survivor because the life expectancy of his kind is a maximum of 12-14 months at best.

Tony celebrates his 55th birthday next week.

“She’s on a very strict diet, so unfortunately she can’t eat birthday cake,” Samantha laughed.

“But it takes something like what we’ve been through to make you realize how precious it is to wake up and spend the day together as a family.”

“It’s hard to say what keeps Tony alive, but I think the main thing is his positivity and strength. He really he captures the people around him.