A couple who both received extremely rare and devastating cancer diagnoses have defied doctor’s expectations to have two children.
Tony Cook, 54, was given just three months to live when doctors found a seven centimetre tumour in his brain in 2019.
He and his wife Samantha, 36, from outback Queensland, were told by doctors they had a week-long window to try for children before he started his gruelling treatment.
Miraculously, she fell pregnant. But the couple were plunged into fresh despair when Samantha was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at her 14-week scan and doctors had to remove an ovary.
The couple, who live in Blackall south-east of Longreach, now have two children under five and Tony continues to outlive doctor’s expectations.
‘Ovarian cancer is never normally found until an advanced stage so we were extremely lucky for that,’ Samantha told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Tony’s terminal diagnosis we wouldn’t have got pregnant and found the ovarian cancer.’
Samantha and Tony (above) only tried for children after doctor’s told them he had three months to live
The couple pose with son Wyatt, who is two years old. Above, the pair are perched on woollen fleece
Their world first turned upside down when they were on a motor biking holiday in 2019 after a six-month stint at a sheep station where Tony worked as a shearer and Samantha a wool classer.
‘I woke up one morning and Tony was just lathered in sweat and then he started vomiting,’ she said.
‘I got an ambulance to take him to hospital. We were sent home twice because they couldn’t work out what was wrong with him.
‘That night it was like he was possessed, he was so unwell. He couldn’t settle so I took him back to Chinchilla hospital where they kept him for three days but couldn’t work out what was wrong with him.
Eventually he had a CT scan and Samantha was told to drive him to the emergency unit in Toowoomba.
‘They told us he had a seven-and-a-half centimetre brain tumour and they flow him by helicopter to Brisbane where they operated within 24 hours.’
‘Tony was out of hospital four days after that because he’s pretty tough. We were told he only had three months.’
Tony and Samantha have defied doctors’ expectations to have two children
The couple had originally planned to have children at some stage but the doctors told them they only had three weeks before Tony started radiation and chemotherapy treatment.
‘We were going to go to a fertility clinic but I got pregnant almost immediately. You could say it was a bit of a miracle.’
But at Samantha’s 12-week scan doctors discovered a tumour on her left ovary, which was early-stage ovarian cancer.
‘I had to have surgery at 14 weeks to remove the ovary and fallopian tube. It was exactly three months after Tony had had his surgery.
‘There was a risk of losing the baby but they had to remove it.’
Mater Hospital Brisbane gynaecological oncologist Dr Nimithri Cabraal removed Mrs Cook’s left ovary and a fallopian tube to prevent the cancer from spreading.
‘We only see a handful of young women diagnosed with ovarian cancer at Mater each year and maybe only one or two who are pregnant,’ Dr Cabraal told The Courier Mail.
‘I operated on Samantha during her second trimester to reduce the risk of miscarriage. It was a small tumour and we have seen no evidence of reoccurrence.’
Thankfully, baby Wyatt was born fit and healthy in June 2020. He is now two-and-a-half years old.
Doting mother: Samantha poses with son Wyatt (left) and baby daughter Aspen
Despite only having one ovary, Samantha fell pregnant again at the start of 2022 and Aspen was born in September last year.
But the day after she was born the couple received the devastating news that Tony had another tumour.
It had grown from three millimetres to almost six centimetres in just three months.
Doctors operated in November last year and Tony is currently undergoing a six-month course of treatment travelling back and forth to Brisbane — 10 hours’ drive away — for his chemotherapy every three months. –
‘If you were to meet Tony you wouldn’t know that he’s been battling terminal brain cancer for nearly three years,’ said Samantha.
‘His cancer is a very rare form. He’s considered a long-term survivor because life expectancy for his kind is a maximum of 12-14 months at the very best outcome.’
Tony celebrates his 55th birthday next week.
‘He’s on a really strict diet so unfortunately he can’t have any birthday cake,’ laughed Samantha.
‘But it takes something like we’ve been through to make you realise just how precious it is to wake up and spend the day together as a family.’
‘It’s hard to say what is keeping Tony alive but I think the main thing is his positivity and his strength. He really picks up people around him.’
Tony worked as a shearer before his diagnosis
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