Rebecca Robinson, 33, a product manager in Leeds, United Kingdom, spent her pregnancy hearing the same phrase: everything was normal. The fatigue, normal. Bleeding gums, normal. Low iron levels, normal. No one saw what was really happening inside her body.
At 40 weeks, she noticed a small lump on her gum and went to the dentist, who ruled out any serious problem because her pregnancy was so advanced. On April 26, 2024, during labor, a routine test for the epidural showed low platelets. That is when the questions began. Ten days after having her daughter Annabel, a bone marrow biopsy confirmed acute myeloid leukemia, a fast-growing blood cancer.
She started chemotherapy two days after the diagnosis, unable to breastfeed or experience the first months of motherhood as she had imagined. She completed four rounds of treatment by November 2024 and today continues with follow-up biopsies every three months. The woman warns that the symptoms of this cancer are easily confused with common discomforts, and that at any sign out of the ordinary, a simple blood test can change everything.