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A young mum with terminal cancer says she is determined to make precious memories with her two daughters during the time she has left.
Sophie Collins, 26, from Barming, was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2020, while pregnant with her second child, but after rounds of chemotherapy, she has been told the disease had spread to her spine, hips, back and chest.
She is waiting to hear if she can have more chemotherapy, but even if she can, she will live for just over a year, doctors have warned.
The former Travelodge housekeeper, whose own dad died of cancer when she was 11, is now focused on spending as much time with her three-year-old and seven-months as possible, which includes a trip to Disneyland Paris, thanks to fundraising from family, friends and strangers.
Miss Collins said: "At the moment I am just completely numb from it. Every part of me wants to believe is isn't true, it isn't happening to me.
"I am not thinking about myself, I am thinking about the girls. I don't want them to think mummy was really sad."
While Miss Collins, of Edmund Close, was pregnant with her youngest daughter, Delilah, she found a lump on her left breast.
Her GP thought it wasn't anything to cause concern, but referred her to hospital for a scan just in case.
She was told by the women performing the the scan, that again it was nothing to worry about, and it was a blocked milk duct due to her pregnancy.
When she get a call two weeks later to come to Maidstone Hospital, she was therefore not expecting bad news.
But, at ten weeks pregnant, she was told she had breast cancer.
"My fear was for was 'is my daughter going to make it?' I had a mastectomy in January then I started chemotherapy while still pregnant. I delivered Delilah in April."
"Everything was taken away from the pregnancy, I couldn't ever enjoy it because I had so much going on," she recalls.
After her single mastectomy, doctors discovered Miss Collins had triple negative breast cancer, which is considered to be more aggressive and harder to treat, because hormone therapy doesn't work.
Miss Collins, who worked at the Travelodge in Maidstone and a golf club, then had to under go intense chemotherapy, meaning she missed out on important steps in her daughters' lives.
She couldn't take her eldest daughter Daisy to her first day of nursery, and then missed out on her third birthday because she was in hospital.
At the start of September, she finished her chemotherapy, only to be told three weeks ago that the treatment hadn't worked.
Then, last week, doctors informed her the cancer had spread to other parts of her body and she has stage four secondary breast cancer.
Miss Collins, a former Valley Park Community School pupil, is now waiting for more test results, to see if she can have more chemotherapy or not.
Her doctor says that if she stops chemotherapy now, she might not even live for a year, but if she does have chemotherapy, she will live for just over a year.
Miss Collins says she is so tired of chemotherapy, but is going to take it for her daughters.
"I just want that little extra time with my kids," she said.
She is also battling pain from the cancer, to the point that her daughters can't even lie on her for a cuddle.
Her brother, Matthew, started a fundraising page last week so Miss Collins and her partner Carl, a carpenter, can take Daisy and Delilah to Disneyland Paris.
The page has now reached beyond its target of £5,000, with £5,325 donated.
Daisy is obsessed with princesses, particularly Cinderella, Miss Collins says.
"It's a little girl's dream. I just wish I had the money to up and take them. I just want to fit in everything I can in the next year to give them as much fun as possible."
The fundraising page will remain open, as friends and family have said they want to donate, in order for Miss Collins to form more treasured memories with her daughters.
To donate, click here.
