A young forensic science graduate was planning a trip around the world to celebrate completing her masters degree, when she went to the doctor to check an ulcer on her tongue.
Eight months later, Lauren Barrett, 26, was dead.
The young woman, from Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, was diagnosed with tongue cancer despite having never smoked a cigarette in her life, rarely drinking, and being decades from the ‘normal range’ for the shocking disease.
Her devastated mother Lyn Barrett shared her daughter’s story in the hope it would shed light on the disease, which doctors say is on the rise in young females.
‘It’s unfathomable,’ Mrs Barrett said.
‘For a young woman to be graduating in September, with a Masters in Forensic Science, to having this happen to her months later was just inconceivable and horrendous,’ she said.
Her family (Lauren, right, pictured with mum Lyn, left) are asking people to donate to the Herschel Wiesenfeld Oral/Oropharyngeal Fund in honour of their daughter, so a cure can be found for the cancer, which is affecting more and more young women
Lauren had gone to see a GP three times, as well as a dentist, before developing a lump on her neck during a holiday with friends in New Zealand and rushing to emergency on November 23.
She was diagnosed the next day, and surgery to remove half her tongue was scheduled for a few weeks later.
The surgery was meant to take 12 hours, but doctors told Mrs Barrett they were battling a ‘particularly unfriendly’ cancer, and would need an extra four hours to try and remove it.
‘Lauren was very stoic about it all,’ Mrs Barrett said.
‘Even the morning of the surgery – we all grouped together before she was taken from the ward and went down towards the operating theatres.
‘I can still see her… she gave us two thumbs up like “I’ve got this mum”.
‘She was just so strong,’ Mrs Barrett said.
‘I’m not half the woman she was.’
The 26-year-old had a 16-hour surgery to remove half her tongue as she fought bravely to beat the aggressive disease
She had graduated with a Masters degree in Forensic Science in September, but never had the chance to work in her chosen field
Mrs Barrett said through everything, her daughter remained ‘incredibly tough’.
She barely shed a tear in front of her family, and was focused on what treatments were available to her, if she would be able to harvest her eggs so she could have children after radiation, and on making plans to celebrate Christmas in July with her mum.
The devastated mother said during her time in hospital Lauren had built up close relationships with a number of nurses, doctors and surgeons, who went out of their way to look out for the young woman.
After missing out on Christmas lunch, Lauren had told her radiation nurses: ‘I’m telling mum we’re having Christmas in July because I missed out on turkey.’
The women banded together to find Lauren and Mrs Barrett knitted festive sweaters for their celebration, and excitedly presented them to the family.
‘We didn’t get to have [Christmas in July],’ Mrs Barrett said. ‘She didn’t make it.’
Lauren’s cancer spread quickly through her body despite intensive rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and she died on June 30, leaving her family, friends and doctors devastated
Lauren’s cancer had quickly spread through her body, to her lung, spine, liver and head, and after two rounds of immunotherapy, taken as a last resort to buy her more time, she died on June 30.
Mrs Barrett said she and her daughter had an intensely close relationship, fostered through a mutual love of travel and reality television.
‘To lose a beautiful young woman like her… she was my best mate. We did everything together,’ she said.
‘We booked a holiday for April, we were meant to go to Italy, London, France and Greece – we’d been to New York together a couple of years ago. We were basically inseparable.
‘She was a good kid. There’s no answers to it.’
She said Lauren had worked hard to graduate university with a Masters degree in Forensic Science, and was looking forward to finding work in her chosen career.
‘This year – we thought 2019 was going to be her year to shine,’ Mrs Barrett said. ‘It’s just horrendous. There are no words that can describe what it’s like.’
Since her death, Lauren’s home has been filled with well wishers. Friends of friends have cooked meals for the family, and a line of condolence cards sitting by their front door stretches more than a metre long.
Massive bouquets are scattered throughout the home, and Mrs Barrett admitted she was running out of places to put them.
But what has meant most to the family is a stream of donations to the Herschel Wiesenfeld Oral/Oropharyngeal Fund, made in Lauren’s name.
Lauren’s mother, Lyn (centre), said her daughter was her ‘best mate’ and the pair had been planning to go on a European trip before the young woman fell ill
Mrs Barrett is now committed to helping doctors find a cure for the disease, which is beginning to affect more and more young women.
When Lauren first began to study, she enrolled in a medical science degree, and had often remarked she wanted to cure something.
‘I know she would want to have found a cure for this cancer, so no other family has to suffer like we’ve suffered – and will continue to suffer,’ Mrs Barrett said.
‘I think it might help the family too, to be able to raise awareness, channel that grief into something constructive in her honour.’
Doctors say the women affected do not tend to have any of the risk factors typically associated with tongue cancer, such as heavy drinking and smoking, and that the survival rate is much lower.
A recent study showed the five-year survival rate is 70 per cent for older patients, but only 42 per cent in younger patients.