Neil and Ebru Potts are pictured in hospital after she gave birth to their son Kaiden
A taxi driver is facing an agonising goodbye with his wife after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer while pregnant with their son.
Neil Potts, 33, of North Shields, Tyne and Wear, met call centre worker Ebru in 2015 when giving her a lift in his cab.
The pair were preparing to start a new life together a year later when they got married and were overjoyed to learn they were expecting their first child.
But Mrs Potts, 34, received the devastating news five months into her pregnancy that she had cervical cancer.
She had chemotherapy while pregnant, and baby Kaiden was born two months early when doctors decided it would be safe to deliver him via C-section.
Mrs Potts continued her treatment after having her son, and in January was told that the cancer had gone.
But, just two months later, she began experiencing back pain, and scans showed she now had 14 tumours in her brain.
Mrs Potts had chemotherapy while pregnant, and baby Kaiden (pictured together) was born two months early when doctors decided it would be safe to deliver him via C-section
Now the family say they are ‘devastated beyond belief’ after learning that her tumours are starting to haemorrhage, and there is nothing more doctors can do.
Devoted husband Mr Potts has spoken of his agony at watching his wife in the final stages of her fight, and facing life as a single father.
‘It’s just awful seeing her the way she is now,’ he said. ‘She’s sleeping all the time, she has no energy and she gets very confused.
‘There are days when she can’t even remember the baby. She’s always so smiley and chatty, and it’s just not her. She can’t break a smile now.’
The young family’s agony started when Mrs Potts began getting pains and bleeding while carrying Kaiden.
Devoted husband Mr Potts has spoken of his agony at watching his wife in the final stages of her fight, and facing life as a single father to Kaiden
She was diagnosed with rare stage 3b small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix (cervical cancer) and immediately started chemotherapy.
The pair then had an agonising decision to make regarding their unborn child.
The family say they are ‘devastated beyond belief’ – and doctors can do nothing more
‘They said they could get the baby out now but there was a 30 per cent chance he would die, so we waited until she was 31 weeks pregnant.
‘My head was just battered because I was worrying for both of them. I kept thinking: “Am I going to lose my wife and my baby?”
‘Kaiden was born on October 26 at 3lb 2oz – two months premature – but he’s done brilliantly well.’
Mrs Potts’s treatment continued, with chemotherapy and radiotherapy taking its toll on them as a new family.
They started looking to the future together when the family were told Mrs Potts’s cancer had gone.
But in March this year Mrs Potts was rushed to hospital with severe back pain and was told the cancer was now stage 4, and had travelled to her brain with multiple tumours.
Now the family are faced with the devastating prospect of saying goodbye as Mrs Potts reaches the final stages of the disease.
The family are faced with the devastating prospect of saying goodbye as Mrs Potts reaches the final stages of the disease
Mr Potts said: ‘They said the tumours were haemorrhaging now and there’s nothing they can do for her. It’s just horrendous – everything we’ve been through from getting married until this.’
Mr Potts’s brother Chris has now started an online fundraising page after the self-employed tax driver’s earnings plummeted during his wife’s illness.
Chris said: ‘Everyone involved is devastated beyond belief that a previously healthy 34-year-old embarking on her lifelong dream of being a mother to Kaiden, and wife to Neil is coming to an end so terribly.
‘We are all trying to help but the costs involved in looking after Ebru at this late stage and the aftermath of what is to come is worrying for Neil and Kaiden.’
Mr Potts is also urging women with similar symptoms to visit the doctor to get themselves checked out. To help him, click here.