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Anorak News | A 55-Year Old Woman’s Cancer Baby And What It Means For You

A 55-Year Old Woman’s Cancer Baby And What It Means For You

by | 22nd, March 2008

daily-mail-meets.jpg“MUM TO BE AGE 55 WAS TOLD HER BUMP WAS CANCER.”

The Mail’s front page features Susan Tollefsen, age 57. She “feared the worst when she was sent to hospital for a scan on her growing bump”. And was told by the sonographer: “Congratulations, you’re almost 30 weeks pregnant.”

“I was lying on the examination table thinking, ‘I’m going to die’ when the sonographer turned round to me and said ‘Congratulations’,” says Susan.

“My initial reaction was to think, ‘What a terrible way to tell me I’ve got ovarian cancer’. When he then said, ‘You’re pregnant’ I was literally speechless.

It turns out that the “Easter miracle” is a combination of IVF treatment, luck and perseverance.

Susan we learn is a special needs teacher. She is now with Nick but was married to Bruno, an Italian restaurateur.

Nick’s job is not given. And Mail readers are surely interested to know what it is Nick does. The Mail begins each interview by extending a gloved hand and asking: “So, what is it you do?” How did Nick escape?

In harvesting job titles, the Mail can provide context to stories, coming up with news such as today’s headline maker: “Financial adviser arrested and forced to give DNA sample after spraying neighbour with garden hose.”

Financial advisors can debate if they are more likely to spray a neighbour with a garden hose, just as special needs teachers once married to Italian restauranteurs can wonder if they have ovarian cancer, billed as the “silent killer”?

But statistics rely on facts and until Nick’s job is specified, we fear many 57-year-old women with distended stomachs will be uncertain how they fit into the picture.

And if being married to a sales executive for a biscuit company increases or reduces their chances of conception, or a row with the neighbours?



Posted: 22nd, March 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink