Being there for daughter gives mum reason to live

Mosgiel mum Natalie Reynolds takes nothing for granted, especially when it comes to her daughter Isobel. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery.

When Natalie Reynolds got the ''big C'' diagnosis from her doctor, her life failed to flash before her eyes.

In fact, it was quite the opposite. Her future flashed before her eyes, she said.

Just over 12 months ago, she was living the life she had always dreamed of, and the apple of her eye was her 15-month-old daughter Isobel.

But that all turned into a nightmare when she visited her doctor to find out why she had been feeling unwell.

Instead of being given some medicine and sent on her merry way, she was told she had stage two bowel cancer.

''It was an absolute kick to the stomach. I never ever thought that it could be cancer. It was a real shock.

"For me, everything was focused on Isobel. I didn't even think about my life or what I had and hadn't done.

"All I could think about was what I was potentially going to miss out on as far as she was concerned.''

Within two weeks, Ms Reynolds had her entire large bowel removed and was given a stoma. But her frightening ordeal was far from over.

Postsurgery scans found she had spots on her liver, which doctors believed were metastases.

She was immediately upgraded to stage four and given three months of chemotherapy.

"I was one of the unfortunate ones who had very bad reactions to chemo.

"I was on 24 pills a day, just to keep the nausea and pain under control, and I was still incredibly ill.

"Basically, I felt like I had been hit by a bus - luckily, I didn't lose my hair.''

Ms Reynolds said she felt so ill at times, she did not know whether she was going to pull through.

"I was much sicker than I was before the chemo.

"Isobel was all I could think about. I had only been able to get to know her for 15 months and that wasn't long enough for me, so I did everything I could to make sure I could watch her grow up.

"It was really hard to think about, but it also gave me that motivation to push through.''

Just days before Ms Reynolds was due to have a liver resection in Christchurch, another scan showed that the spots on her liver were not metastases.

Rather, they were just cysts.

"Technically, the chemo had been unnecessary. But I wasn't angry.

"It was amazingly fantastic news. It was better to do the chemo and have it turn out this way, than not have the chemo and have it turn out the other way.''

Now, the 27-year-old appears to be cancer-free and she is back at work as an office administrator, slowly recovering from the gruelling ordeal.

She is now helping to raise awareness of bowel cancer in New Zealand by participating in Junk Free June which began yesterday.

''From the minute I got my diagnosis, we were absolutely overwhelmed by all the support and charity from community organisations.

''I'm still not very strong - I've got a lot of conditioning to get back - so I figured dropping junk food for a month was a nice easy start to giving back.

''It breaks my heart that over this past year I have not only met some incredible people fighting the same fight as me, but I have also had to bury close family friends because of the absolutely cruel C-word.

''Every time another person passes away I get this flood of anger and regret that not everyone's story is the same as mine.''

Visit here to get involved.