A “Hail Mary” social media miracle has returned the ring a dying mother wanted to give her son as a memento of her lasting love.
Bella Ainsworth, 29, was diagnosed with incurable cancer just weeks after giving birth to her son Saf and has been given just months to live.
The ring is part of a treasure trove of gifts and messages she is preparing for Saf to receive from her posthumously in the years to come.
Sadly, her brother Matt James Allan left the ring, which is part of a matching pair ordered by Ms Ainsworth’s best friend, on a train in Melbourne last Tuesday.
Fortunately, the ring was found, which was specially made as a memorial to a dying mother and her son
After a week of desperate searching, including calling the police and public transport, Ms Ainsworth had given up hope of finding the priceless tape.
“I wasn’t confident,” Ms Ainsworth said.
‘You only need half a brain to realize that it is expensive, it is a completely gold band.
‘We have incorporated my fingerprints into the ring and it contains four special stones that mean something to me.
“My girlfriend has spared no expense, bless her cotton socks.”
Her distraught brother, who last saw the ring in the box on the seat next to him at South Yarra station shortly before stepping off the express train to Melbourne’s south-east at 3.50pm, was desperate to make amends.
“That’s why it was all so distressing,” Ms Ainsworth said.
‘My brother said, ‘I’ll pay for a replacement,’ and I said, ‘I don’t think you can afford it, honey.’
To their surprise, after handing out the mail earlier this week, they were contacted by a man who had found the mail on the train.
“He didn’t trust the lost and found where anyone can get them,” Ms Ainsworth said.
The ring still had the Melbourne jeweler’s mark on it, so he contacted them but never saw the return message.
“So he didn’t give chase,” Ms Ainsworth said.
“Then he saw the Facebook post and said this is definitely the ring.
‘My brother met him and he picked him up earlier today and is on his way to Shepparton where we are now.’
Last June, Ms Ainsworth was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma cancer, which affects her liver, gallbladder and bile ducts. The doctors gave her only twelve months to live under treatment.
Bella Ainsworth (pictured center with family members including brother Matt, back right) received the devastating news that she had a rare and terminal cancer just weeks after the birth of her first son
Because the tumor was inoperable, the only hope was a liver transplant and only one doctor, a surgeon from Sydney, was willing to perform the operation.
“They were willing to take me on, everyone else said ‘no, it’s too risky’,” Ms Ainsworth said.
However, in November, a preliminary procedure yielded the devastating news that the cancer had spread beyond the liver.
“That was my worst day,” Mrs Ainsworth said.
“Up until that point, we were hopeful.”
Ms Ainsworth and her husband Mitch Barrett have returned to their hometown of Shepparton in north-east Victoria, where she is undergoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but with no hope of long-term remission.
“We have accepted our situation, we are still fighting, but we are spending all our time together building memories and living life,” Ms Ainsworth said.
‘I’m being treated well and it’s all going quite well, so fingers crossed we’ll stretch it out little by little.
“He and I (Mr Barrett) have our coping mechanisms, which are mainly humor.”
Mrs Ainsworth (pictured with husband Mitch Barrett and nine-year-old Saf) says she is preparing birthday gifts and letters for her son until the age of 21
Ms Ainsworth said her quality of life is currently good.
“Even though I’m doing well, it’s very easy to be cheerful,” she said.
“If you looked at me, other than my hair and a few other things, you wouldn’t know that there was really nothing wrong.
“It’s only when I’m really sick that reality sets in and it’s not so great.”
She said being close to Saf also helped her stay afloat.
‘When I’m around him it’s easy for me because a baby is a great distraction. He’s cute and fun,” she said.
‘He’s a very happy baby. We’ve been very lucky. He sleeps well, all that stuff. We are blessed in that regard.
“He’s about to walk, he’s crawling, he’s saying goo goo, go go, mommy, daddy kind of thing.
‘My goal is to reach his first birthday in May, which is our big milestone and my thirtieth.’
Mrs Ainsworth only learned of her condition when an attentive midwife noticed that she seemed to be doing poorly after having Saf.
‘She told me, ‘You’re not bouncing back the normal way.’ I thought it was all normal after pregnancy,” Ms Ainsworth said.
On the midwife’s advice, Mrs Ainsworth went to hospital for blood tests.
“It took them a few weeks to figure it out,” she said.
“We thought it would be an easy fix, something minor because it showed up as a blood clot that turned out to be a tumor.”
She describes the months that followed as a new mother and terminal cancer patient as a “whirlwind,” but said the low points were when she couldn’t raise Saf.
“I had a huge blood transfusion,” she said.
‘After that I couldn’t even hold him, I couldn’t breastfeed, I couldn’t do anything anymore.
Ms Ainsworth said having a baby is ‘a great distraction’ from her condition because he is so ‘cute and fun’
“I thought that was the most horrifying thing.”
‘When I was in and out of hospital you couldn’t see him for weeks, so I found that difficult.’
As for the recovered ring, she plans for Saf to get it on his 21st birthday.
However, she prepares many more things to give him before that date.
“My sister-in-law gave me this beautiful teddy bear that you can record on,” she said.
‘I read him books and his favorite nursery rhymes that he laughs at at the moment.
‘We organize all his birthday presents until he is 21.
‘I also write a letter for every year.’
a GoFundMe page to help with Ms Ainsworth’s medical costs was set up by Elle Griffin, Ms Ainsworth’s sister-in-law, and as of Wednesday afternoon had raised almost $170,000 since launching in August.
“If you know Bella then you are one of the lucky ones and you won’t be surprised that she has chosen to do everything in her power to beat this,” Ms Griffith wrote of the brave mother.
In its latest January update, the page says: ‘Bella is still kicking cancer and looks so beautiful doing it (honestly, how does she do it)’.
“Chemotherapy is back in full swing and thankfully there have been more good days than bad,” Ms. Griffin wrote.
“It was a magical holiday season as she made memories with all her dearest loved ones.”
Ms Bella said if she had been able to have the liver transplant it would have meant spending a year in Sydney instead of being back in Shepparton.
“It’s a blessing that I was able to stay with my support network, but not a blessing that my only option for healing was taken away,” she said.
“Our immediate family are incredible, they were absolutely brilliant, but they didn’t know we had so many other allies and other supporters. That regional heart is very strong.
“We’re absolutely blown away (by the support). It’s really hard to describe.’