Mum stuns doctors after being 'sent home to die' with terminal lung cancer
06.08.2023 - 11:15
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A mum "sent home to die" with lung cancer has stunned doctors with her response.
Sarah Clarke, 43, was told by medics there was nothing they could do for her after her cancer diagnosed two years previously had spread. On Mother's Day in March 2019, she was sent home to spend the last six weeks of her life with her heartbroken husband Adam.
Despite having two operations to remove two tumours from her brain, Sarah faced the agonising task of telling children Joe, 13, and Georgina, 11, she would not be with them on her birthday in April.
She told the Mirror: “I was in complete disbelief. The life I had planned ahead of me with my family disappeared. The hardest thing was realising I wouldn’t see my kids grow up.”
Desperate to ensure her family had lasting memories of her, she had filmed 40 poignant videos for her children to watch as they got older and even planned her own funeral. But then, as her days were finally running out, the unbelievable happened. She lived to see her 39th birthday – and beyond.
Usually, brain tumours grow back within six weeks of removal. But Sarah's scans showed no signs – leaving her neurosurgeon at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital, consultant Saurabh Sinha, hardly able to believe his eyes. In January this year, the mum was told that against all odds, she was in remission.
Cancer Research UK says the chance of someone with metastatic lung cancer surviving five years or more is just 4%. Now Sarah, feels almost back to her old self and has her own explanation for her recovery.
She said: “I believe it’s love and hope that got me through I was sent home to die. But after doing all of the videos and the letters. I thought, ‘I’ve had such a good life’, and I want my kids to live their lives, to