A mom blogger who has never smoked in her life has revealed she has only six months to live after being diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread to her brain.
Jenny Appleford, from California, has set up a YouTube channel to document her medical journey following her initial diagnosis in 2021.
Earlier this month, the mother-of-two heartbreakingly revealed that doctors had told her she only had six to nine months left.
The 36-year-old has since explained how she and husband Kyle told their children – son Ellis, seven, and daughter Winnie, three – which left the couple “sick to the stomach.”
California’s Jenny Appleford has revealed she has just six months to live after being diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread to her brain
The mother of two has set up a YouTube channel to document her medical journey after her first diagnosis in 2021
Jenny was diagnosed with stage IIIA non-smoking lung cancer and began several treatments including chemotherapy, radiation sessions to the chest and immunotherapy
In 2021, Jenny was suffering from rib pain that would not get better, which later progressed to shortness of breath.
After a scan, the then 33-year-old was diagnosed with stage IIIA non-smoking lung cancer — also known as adenocarcinoma lung cancer — and began several treatments, including rounds of chemotherapy, chest radiation sessions and immunotherapy.
But the mother-of-two was later told the cancer had spread to her brain, lymph nodes and the lining of her lungs.
Her diagnosis then changed to stage 4 cancer, meaning the treatment “was no longer curative and shifted to a focus on quality versus quantity of life,” the family said. GoFundMe page.
During her medical journey, Jenny has documented her progress on a special YouTube channel “like a video diary” for her family.
The blurb reads, “The purpose of my channel is to document my cancer journey to look back on and/or help someone else going through something similar. It is also to potentially help loved ones support those who are also caught up in this battle.”
Just two weeks ago, she uploaded a clip to reveal she had only months to live.
Sitting with husband Kyle, the couple revealed: ‘The scan results weren’t good and they were very hard to hear… The doctor said, ‘You’ve got six to nine months to live hopefully, could be more, could be less.”
The 36-year-old has since explained how she and husband Kyle told their children – son Ellis, seven, and daughter Winnie, three – which left the couple ‘sick in the stomach’.
During her medical journey, Jenny has documented her progress on a special YouTube channel “like a video diary” for her family
The part of Jenny’s brain currently affected by the cancer controls her motor skills and “a little bit of memory.”
Kyle continues, “Jenny doesn’t want to live if it means she’s not there mentally.”
Speaking about getting the latest results, Jenny said candidly, “I wanted to hide and not let anyone know. I was so sad, embarrassed and embarrassed.
“I was terrified of disappointing everyone and breaking this bad news to everyone. I know the pain this news is causing me and I know it’s the cancer doing it but I feel like I’m a part of it even though I’m not.
“I feel like I need to say I’m sorry…I feel like I need to apologize to everyone I hurt.”
In another clip, Kyle said he was “sick in the stomach” that they should tell their kids before explaining the exchange in a heartbreaking video.
“We took them home and put them in the living room… We started by saying all the great things about them.
“We wanted them to know how much we love them and how much we wanted kids and loved kids and they’re so amazing and all the good things about each and every one of them.”
‘And then we told them we had an appointment yesterday. We asked them what they thought of mom’s cancer so far.
“We asked them, ‘Do you think it’s going to get better or worse based on what you’re seeing.’ They were a bit confused.
Winnie said it right away, she said “worse” and Ellis was wishful and said, “I don’t know. Maybe better?” I could tell by his face that he was ready, like he knew we were going to say something.’
Kyle has also started posting videos on his own channel, which has 28,000 followers, with a clip uploaded last week titled, “I’m Losing My Wife”
The pair continued: ‘We were very honest in what we said and we told them what the doctor told us.
“We were very clear in our words because… it is very important to be clear in your words. Don’t make it open-ended so that the child could take it the wrong way.
“You don’t want to say ‘die’, you want to say ‘die’.
“So this is a conversation you don’t practice every day, but we wanted to be absolutely clear and we told them that every living thing dies, right? It’s part of life and mom’s comes way sooner than any of us would like.
“We talked about how the cancer is getting bigger and stronger, we’re finding more places to go and hide where we can’t get it and they both started breaking down right away.
“We told them the doctor told us about six to nine months. Ellis was very firm on the idea that there could be a miracle.’
Jenny, who has amassed more than 103,000 subscribers on YouTube thanks to her candid insights, said it was important to make sure her kids didn’t “hold false hopes.”
Kyle added: ‘It takes a lot of courage to be honest with them because it’s a scary thing to say, but this is the route we took and I’m glad we did it.
They revealed that their two children were left sobbing, before revealing their son’s heartbreaking reaction.
Ellis reportedly said at the time, “I hope I’m just in a bad dream right now and this is a dream and it will go away and you don’t actually die.”
Jenny concluded, ‘They’re both very sharp and really get it. They get it on deep, different levels. They are two completely different people.
“They digest it and process it uniquely for themselves…
“It’s horrible telling your kids you’re dying and they’re crying and having to hear your little ones say, ‘Mommy, I don’t want you to die.'”
Kyle has also started posting videos on his own channel, which has 28,000 followers, with a clip uploaded last week titled, “I’m Losing My Wife.”
In it, he exposes his own struggles to accept Jenny’s diagnosis after she had only months to live.
“For me, the pressure immediately started to build: if this is your wife’s last hurrah, then you have to make it special for her, you have to make every day count and you have to make every moment count, you have to make every celebration count and every little thing you do should count.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure everything is perfect – and I can tell you it’s not.”
He continued, “I’m struggling to keep it together, feeling like I’m sinking with all the things we have to do and checking off the list and then I start beating myself up inside because “oh today wasn’t perfect” and so I feel that pressure.
“Nobody else puts that pressure on me but me…I guess that’s the caretaker’s curse.”
Kyle explained, “I feel like my head is spinning and I can’t keep up… it’s really overwhelming and scary.”
Holding back tears, he concluded, “The hardest thing about all of this is just knowing you’re losing your best friend. Jennifer is my best friend and I don’t want to lose her.
‘We do everything together. We all have the same opinions, the same goals. I don’t want to do this alone, I don’t want to do life alone and I don’t want to raise the kids alone and I don’t want to be without my best friend.
“If anyone knows me, they know that the moment I met her was the moment I was truly in love…and now she’s being taken away from me.”