Recent data has shown that cancer rates are increasing among people under 50 years old. The trend is evident in several countries, with rates so alarming that scientists are scrambling to answer why a disease generally associated with older people is affecting this population so severely in recent years.
Lisa Foster, a 32-year-old mother in the UK who was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2023, might have wondered the same thing. Sadly, she may not be around long enough to learn the answer. As she faces her own mortality, she’s trying to prepare her daughter for life without her.
Foster discovered the lump herself.
Two years ago, Foster felt a pea-sized lump in her left breast, the Daily Mail reported. Initially, she thought it was a gym injury, but when the lump was still there a week later, Foster went to the doctor. Scans confirmed she had stage three triple-negative ductal sarcoma. This form of cancer is rare but more aggressive and harder to treat. Foster opted for a mastectomy and a range of intense therapies to battle the disease.
Her treatments didn’t stop the cancer from spreading.
After several months of treatment, Foster was going to receive another scan to determine if she was eligible for radiotherapy, the use of X-rays to destroy cancer cells. But before then, doctors told her the cancer had spread to other parts of her body and had reached the final stages.
Sadly, “the cancer had spread to her chest wall, her right breast and her liver,” Foster’s husband Adam stated. “We’re told she was now at stage four.”
Stage four breast cancer is incurable. Still, doctors can treat it in the hopes of lengthening a patient’s life by months or even years.
Doctors gave her weeks to live.
The additional treatments, however, haven’t been effective for Foster. Doctors told her that her next round of chemotherapy would likely only have a 9% success rate. Then they predicted that with the rate the cancer had spread, she had two weeks left to live.
Foster is now preparing friends and family for her departure. “This is probably one of the last posts I’ll be putting on social media, although my family may put something when the time comes,” she wrote on Facebook, per People. “Unfortunately, my liver is failing me and I’m not sure how long I have got left to live. The cancer hasn’t won the fight. It dies with me and I will fight for as long as I can.”
The couple hopes their story can help others.
Adam explained that they chose to share his wife’s story to encourage other women to check their breasts regularly. “We want people to know that cancer can affect anyone at any age – Lisa is a young mum who thought she just had a gym injury,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
Foster’s friend launched a GoFundMe account to raise funds to pay for the funeral and so Foster’s 4-year-old daughter can have a memento of her mother. It’s close to reaching its goal.
Foster wants to leave something to her daughter.
On the fundraising platform, a family friend explained how the money will be spent. “One of Lisa’s wishes is to have her ashes made into jewelry for her beautiful daughter so she can continue to be with her always,” the friend wrote.
In the meantime, the adults are bracing for the impact of Foster’s death, including her husband. “Lisa and I have been together a long time,” he told the Daily Mail. “We met when we were 15. I don’t want to imagine what things will be like when she’s gone.”
