Case study: ‘It was scary, I didn’t want anything to harm them’

THREE months after falling pregnant Vanessa Love found out she was expecting twins. Four days later she was diagnosed with leukaemia.

Despite the risks to herself, she decided not to have chemotherapy in order to protect her unborn babies.

She took remission drugs for the duration of her pregnancy and waited until her sons were four weeks old before starting chemotherapy.

Mrs Love’s sons, Blake and Rohan, now aged seven, are as happy and healthy as sisters Amber,13, and Megan,11.

The mother-of-four, from Westhill, Aberdeenshire, said: “It was a scary time but I did not want to do anything to harm the boys.

“Doctors had evidence about chemotherapy in single births but there was very little research on how it would affect twins.

“Doctors, myself and my husband Charlie agreed I would delay the treatment .

“I started on the medication while pregnant and when the twins were four weeks I started intensive chemotherapy.

“They were still in hospital because they were both low-weight babies and didn’t get home until they were two months old.”

The boys arrived nine weeks early with Blake weighing only 3lb 9oz and Rohan, born a minute later, an even smaller at 3lb 5oz.

But, like their mother, the twins’ health has now been given the all clear.

Mrs Love, 39, added: “The boys are completely unaware of any of the fuss they came into the world with.”