An ecstatic mum who last saw her own 96-year-old mother in late 2019, when she flew to India to say goodbye after being told her cancer was incurable, has booked to return next month after a miracle trial left her free of the disease. Given between 10 and 12 months to live in November 2019, Jasmin David, 51, was told the aggressive triple negative breast cancer she had fought off a year earlier had returned and spread to her lungs, lymph nodes and chest bone.
Devastated, after telling her husband, David Lazar, 54, and their children, Ryan, 23, and Riona, 19, Jasmin knew she had farewells to say in India – particularly to her mum, four sisters and four brothers. But she will never forget her mother Annamma Joseph’s words when she flew from her home in Manchester to Kerala in India, saying: “In my mind, I thought I would never see them again, because there was nothing the doctors could do for me.
“When I said goodbye to my mum, who is a devoted Catholic, she said, ‘No, this is not goodbye because you will come back’ – and she was right. When I found out in June 2020 there was no cancer left, I thought, ‘There is God at work.’
“I couldn’t help thinking, ‘What have I done to deserve this?'” she continued. “I felt so grateful and overwhelmed. It was amazing.”
The first sign something was wrong came in November 2017 when Jasmin started having an itchy left breast. She said: “I was a fit, healthy, middle aged woman, who had never been ill before and suddenly my left breast was itching all the time.
“But no matter how many times I scratched, it didn’t stop. Then, when I started to feel around, I found a lump above the nipple.”
Not thinking for a moment that the unusual itching or innocuous grape-sized lump would be anything serious, she asked a medical colleague to take a look, who advised a precautionary GP visit. After an initial check-up, Jasmin – who has no history of cancer in the family – was referred to a breast screening centre two weeks later for a mammogram and two biopsies, which identified a “suspicious and deep area”.
A fortnight later, the results showed she had rare and aggressive ‘triple negative breast cancer'.
“I came into the room and everyone was stood around me and I knew it was going to be bad news,” she said. “At first I thought, ‘Oh, negative, that must be a minor kind of cancer.’ Then the nurse explained and I slowly absorbed what she was saying.”
Too upset to tell their children themselves, Jasmin and David asked other people in the family to break the news. Jasmin said: “They both came to see me crying and we had this big cry together, before my son said, ‘No Mama, let us face this together.'”
Jasmin began six months of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour in December 2017, followed by a mastectomy in April 2018 and 15 cycles of radiotherapy, which to her relief successfully cleared the cancer. To rejoice in the all-clear, Jasmin’s husband, son, daughter and seven families of friends came for a garden party to celebrate.
Huge platters of food were laid out to eat as the friends laughed, prayed and celebrated the good news into the early hours of the warm summer evening. “It was a wonderful celebration,” she said. But, just over a year later, on October 19, 2019, Jasmin developed a sore throat, dry cough and felt an unusual pain in her chest while breathing.
Sensing something was wrong, she saw her GP who sent her for tests and, to her dismay, later that month, she discovered the cancer was back, with multiple lesions in both lungs. Then a further MRI showed the disease had spread to her lungs, lymph nodes and chest bone.
“I was 15 months down the line from the cancer and I had almost forgotten about it all,” she said. “They told me I had 10 to 12 months to live. I was speechless. I remember walking out of that room in silence. I couldn’t see any brightness.”
Going home in a daze, she recalls her husband holding her as she cried: “I cried in his arms, thinking, ‘In months I will die. Where will my children be? Will I ever see my daughter get married?’
“That was the last cry I had. My husband said, ‘We will face this together and we can do it.'”
Foremost in her mind was organising a trip to India to say goodbye to loved ones. Her mother’s positive words rang in her ears as she hoped she might be accepted for a clinical trial, but two trials came and went, so she feared a second chance at life had eluded her.
Then a phase one trial – meaning the drugs had only been tested on animals – was offered and Jasmin cautiously accepted. She said: “I was nervous because there was no guarantee with the trial, but I thought, ‘At least I can do something to help others and use my body for the next generation.'”
On December 10, 2020, Jasmin began the two-year clinical trial. At first, she suffered side effects including convulsions, headaches and a spiking temperature, that meant she was in hospital over Christmas. Then she started responding well to the treatment.
By June 2021, miraculously, a scan revealed that there were no measurable cancer cells in Jasmin’s body and she was entirely cancer free. Of the 30 women with metastatic breast cancer on the trial, Jasmin was one of only two to have an all-clear result, with 16 others dropping out, as they could not cope with the side effects.
She said: “Every time I had an appointment, I would pray to Jesus and bargain with him to give me life. When I saw my results, I knew I was right to have faith in science and God.”
Just months before the all-clear, in the middle of her treatment, Jasmin marked her 50th birthday – still at that point, not knowing if she had a future. But her family and friends were determined to make it a day to remember.
“While I was out with my husband, all my friends and family were secretly decorating my home and hiding inside it,” she said. “My daughter had given me this beautiful dress to wear that morning and when I came home and opened that door, I saw them all there, with these magical flowers and balloons hung across every wall of the home and garden. One-by-one, my friends appeared and rejoiced with me. It was the best birthday I have ever had.”
Now the success of the trial means Jasmin is being supported with the drug for a further two years. She has experienced some lasting difficulties, such as limited movement of her hands and fatigue from the radiotherapy and mastectomy, but she is basically healthy and incredibly happy to be alive.
“Two and a half years ago, I thought it was the end,” she said. “I was on that plane coming back from India to Manchester thinking, ‘The next time my family are on this plane, they will be taking my body back to India.’ When I think of going back now, I’m so grateful to make it this far. I feel like I have been reborn. I have got this new body and I like myself so much more.
“I used to be a perfectionist and now I take joy in the imperfections and focus on being with my family. I take everything as a challenge now – I don’t want to have a chilled life. I want to be out there doing things and find positives in everything.”
While the 2020 lockdown put a halt to Jasmin holding any physical celebrations, once she got the all clear, she did have a celebratory Facetime call with their loved ones to pray and mark the unbelievable moment together. Now she is hoping to return to work in July and is content, in the meantime, to be enjoying time with her family and friends, chatting and pottering in her garden.
And in September, she will celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary with David, which their son and daughter are planning a surprise event for. She said: “It’s another wonderful event I thought I would never see.”
She is also planning a gathering for friends at home in the summer, as well as embracing the small things in life that bring her more joy than she ever knew. Walking through the park near her home, where she once sat and wept for the life she was losing, she now sits and smiles, feeling “reborn”.
She said: “I love being out with nature and walking in the park. I thank the trees I pass for giving me good air and when I see the daffodils, I speak to them too. To the ones stood alone, I say, ‘I am like you, I stand alone but I stand firm,’ but to the ones together, I say they are working as a team. Being at one with nature gives me such positive energy.”
Above everything, she is delighted to be returning to India for three and a half weeks to see her mother and family for the first time since her “farewell trip.”
She said: “When I thought I was dying, my whole family stood and said farewell to me at the airport in India. Next week, they will all be there to welcome me back, alive.”
While Jasmin could still have been put on the clinical trial – which continues until December 2023 – if she lived in India, she would have had to pay for the privilege, whereas she was treated by the NHS for free. But she cannot wait to visit her relatives in Kerala, famous for its latex plantations, saying: “I want to give my mummy a big hug and have a good cry – not out of sadness, but tears of joy.”
As well as enjoying every day treats again, like making her famous biryani for her family, she is also allowing herself to think about major events like her daughter’s future wedding. She said: “I can’t believe I can now allow myself to visualise attending my daughter’s wedding one day.
“I just hope that my story gives people hope, as what the doctors have done for me is amazing. They have given me my life back.”
Dr Kotryna Temcinaite, Senior Research Communications Manager at Breast Cancer Now, says Jasmin’s story is a wonderful example of the benefit of clinical trials. He said: “Jasmin’s story is an inspiring example of how clinical trials can benefit patients, especially women with advanced or secondary breast cancer, where treatment options are very limited.
“Jasmin’s trial was at a relatively early stage and so at the cutting edge of research.” He added: “At this stage scientists and clinicians can’t be certain that the trial will benefit patients, but from early stage trials we can progress to larger ones, testing new drugs and therapies against the best standards to see if they can benefit more people.
“This process can take time, much investment from scientists and funding, but some incredible world-class breast cancer research projects are happening right now in the UK, and across the world, in part funded by Breast Cancer Now, to benefit people with breast cancer in the future.”
To find out more about the world-class breast cancer research funded by Breast Cancer Now go to: breastcancernow.org/research
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea
