A woman diagnosed with lung cancer who was told nothing could be done to save her has defied odds after her cancer was put in remission.
Sarah Clarke, 43, was devastated when she was told she wouldn’t live to see her children, Joe, 13, and Georgina, 11, grow up after being diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to her brain.
Despite operations to remove the two brain tumours two years ago, Sarah was told they would likely grow back within six weeks of being removed.
But Sarah and her neurosurgeon were shocked to learn her scans showed her cancer was now in remission.
Speaking to the Mirror about her initial diagnosis, Sarah said: “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.”
After having the brain tumours removed, Sarah was told she was in remission in January – despite being told she wouldn’t live to see her 39th birthday four years ago.
Cancer Research UK says the chance of someone with metastatic lung cancer surviving five years or more is just 4 percent.
Now Sarah feels almost back to her old self and has her own explanation for her recovery. “I believe it’s love and hope that got me through,” she says. “I felt so loved. It was amazing. I had been in complete disbelief.
“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 follow their dreams. I feel having everyone around me, having this self-actualisation, is why I am still here.”
Sarah briefly began to feel better after several rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy at Western Park Hospital in Sheffield. She even carried on her job as a senior public health specialist until she was diagnosed with her first brain tumour in November 2018. She says the thumping headaches were “like there was a fairground” in her head.
A CT scan also revealed a second brain tumour two months later. Both were removed in two separate ops. Sarah said: “Then my surgeon told me I had less than six months. That’s when I started making videos for the children for when they were older, telling them all I could about me and giving them advice for the future. I still haven’t been able to watch those videos back, but maybe when Joe and Georgina are older we will do that.
“I also planned for my funeral, to make it as easy as possible for Adam. I asked mums from the kids’ school to make a speech, and I met the celebrant to talk about the service. I chose Movin’ On Up by Primal Scream to be played. I dance around the kitchen to it and I thought everyone at the funeral could dance too. I just didn’t want it to be sad.
“I did so much reflecting on my life with letters to family and friends. The thought of missing out on stuff with the kids was heartbreaking. But I was happy.” Sarah was prepared for her health to quickly take a turn for the worse. She spent a brief time in a hospice and then, on that March day in 2019, was sent home to die.
The surgeon told her she wouldn’t live to see her 39th birthday in April. With Sarah propped up in her hospice bed, Adam took what he thought would be one of the last photos of his wife and their children on her final Mother’s Day. Telling her children what was happening was so hard for Sarah. “It took me a year to tell the kids about the first diagnosis.
“When I got the second brain tumour and I was told I was going to die I spoke to Georgina first. When I told Joe he ran to bed and just screamed and screamed.”
During her cancer battle she had kept up her pilates classes, went vegan and started juicing.
But after being told she wouldn’t reach her 39th birthday, she joked she “came home and started inhaling white bread”.
