When someone in their 20s is diagnosed with cancer, it's very sad and wrong. When two people from the same family are both diagnosed within hours of one another, it's a near-tragedy. And yet for two sisters in the UK, that is exactly what happened.
Leanne Barber, 29, was diagnosed with leukemia. Two days later (48 hours), her sister Hayley Todd, 22, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer of the blood. The cancers weren't related and doctors were baffled.
Though the two sisters often couldn't help one another since they were both so sick, the fact that they knew they weren't alone did help in the hard times. Both sisters are now (miraculously) finished with treatment and have been given the all-clear. Hayley said:
It was just so amazing that we had both survived. I don’t know how we would have coped if one of us had survived, and the other hadn't ... I couldn’t have got through it without Leanne, and she couldn’t without me. It has brought us even closer.
No one would ever say a cancer diagnosis is a good thing. But if you're going to be diagnosed, being diagnosed with one's sister is one way to not go through it alone. Sisterhood is a powerful bond. Even when you're mad at each other, you know it.
One might say these sisters share bad genes given they both got cancer. But doctors say these cancers are unrelated and that this is just a shocking fluke.
I say they actually have good genes. Both were strong enough to fight it, thank goodness. It would have been awful for two sisters to be fighting a disease and one not make it. It's hard to imagine the other wouldn't be wracked with survivor's guilt.
My guess is each gathered strength from the other's struggle and knew they had to fight in order to be there for each other. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, let alone my sister. But on some level, now that it's all over, the sisters are even more aware now of how lucky they are to have each other.
They have been given a gift in painful and awful packaging. My guess is they will never lose this bond.
Do you think this story is amazing?
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Comments 17
I think it's irresponsible journalism to say "hours" when it was two days. Be true to the story.
Yeah... aeamathis, because that took away so much from the story. *sigh* Yes, they could have used the word, days, but the effect is much the same.
I don't believe it was a fluke, however. Being sisters, they would have grown up in the same conditions and in the same environment. These are important factors in the causes of cancers... and genetically, these ladies would even have the same predisposition towards the effects of the outside factors resulting in cancer. A perfect storm, so to speak. I'm glad they were able to rely on each other for support through the difficult process.
what a great story
That is a great story.
So glad they are ok, thankfully no one in my family has had to deal with any kind of cancer.
I cannot even imagine, but great they were able to support each other.
wow
Wow that must have been crippling for their mother. Im glad they had each other to lean on through their fight for their life. It must have been so hard on them. Just being a mother I think I would fall into pieces if I found both of my daughters were diagnosed with life threatening illnesses within hours of each other. Im so glad that they both won their fight.