Emily Lahey doesn’t know exactly how much time she has left. She just knows that it’s not much.
She suffers from a rare, aggressive form of cancer and at the time of diagnosis, doctors estimated that she only had six to nine months to live.
She was so kind that she took the time to get to know complete strangers, including me. Why? Because she knows that sharing her life experiences with us now will make a huge difference. Even when she’s no longer here.
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Almost five years ago, Emily was fit, healthy and working as a sergeant in the Australian Defence Force when she began suffering from sinusitis and headaches.
When she first went to the doctor with her concerns, her symptoms were dismissed as nothing serious. It was only when she could no longer see with her left eye that the doctors agreed to further examination.
“These further tests revealed a mass in my sinus and skull bone that was about the size of a cricket ball. It was a very large tumor in a relatively small space,” she says. Mamamia.
Emily was diagnosed with NUT carcinoma – a rare, aggressive cancer that can occur anywhere in the body but most commonly occurs in the head, neck and lungs.
“Unfortunately, when it was found, it was inoperable.”
Emily was just 27 years old.
Friends and family as well as her new partner Jason were there to support her.
“Jason and I met three weeks before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The fact that he not only stuck with me through treatment but was such an important part of my life despite the elephant in the room is not only a great testament to his character but also to the strength of our relationship,” says Emily.
