A 25-year-old woman with cancer who delayed treatment rather than aborting her twins has spoken of her joy at the babies’ birth.
Holley Tierney said it was the “best feeling in the world” when she saw twins Harlow and Havana for the first time.
Holley was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and postponed treatment instead of following doctors’ advice to abort.
Radiotherapy
She has now started treatment and expects to undergo radiotherapy in the new year.
After going to A&E with pains that she thought were from a pulled muscle, a doctor pushed for her to have an X-ray and CT scan, which revealed she had cancer.
Holley was advised to have an abortion so that she could start chemotherapy, but she refused.
‘Worst nightmare’
She explained that while it was her “worst nightmare” to have cancer while pregnant, “there was no way I could terminate my pregnancy when I felt them kick”.
Holley’s babies were delivered safely in August at 29 weeks and weighed around 3lbs each. “Seeing them for the first time was the best feeling in the world, I couldn’t believe they were mine”, she said.
She underwent chemotherapy almost immediately after the birth and battled on despite feeling the strain of the treatment: “They had fought to stay alive and now I needed to fight for my life and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Damage
Last year in The Christian Institute’s Choose Life series, a woman who has had two abortions explained why she wants women to understand the truth about the issue.
Adele Best said: “I would say now that I really think abortion is never right in any circumstance because of the damage it does to a woman”.
“Women deserve to hear the truth about the horrific after-effects of abortion.”
She added: “Abortion is never, ever, the answer. It’s just going to give you a lot more problems and those problems are for a lifetime.”