An East Belfast mum has said that "even with the best treatment available" she will only have two years left with her children after an aggressive form of breast cancer has spread throughout her body.
Chelsea McCreight was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and despite undergoing a double mastectomy and other treatment, the disease has returned and spread to other organs and lymph nodes in her body, with doctors saying that treatment could only prolong her life for another year.
The 29-year-old has two young sons, aged three and five, and is also very close with her eight-year-old step-daughter and has said that she is willing to do all that she can to spend more time with them. She added that she hopes that other treatments could be made available for her as she "has an awful lot of fight still in her".
Read more: Staff and children at East Belfast charity don PJs to raise funds for mum battling cancer
This week she is due to start immunotherapy and weekly chemotherapy sessions, which she hopes will be able to combat the disease, but doctors have warned her that even if it is successful, she would only have two years to live.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Chelsea said: "It just feels like it has been one thing after the other this past year and no matter what I do nothing seems to be working out for me.
"Before getting the diagnosis in January that my cancer had returned and spread aggressively in my body I had gone months without any scans and I feel like if something had been done sooner, then this could have been caught earlier and the treatments would have a better chance of success.
"All I can think about is how my children are going to cope because I have not been able to tell them the extent of my illness and they just think that mummy is going to be sick for a little bit like last time and that it will all work out in the end.
"These next few weeks are going to be very tough on us all, because I am going to start losing my hair again and the immunotherapy will have a big impact on my immune system, which will make it very difficult for me to leave the house other than for hospital appointments and I am terrified at spending the little time that I will have left bed bound and ill instead of being able to make memories with boys."
Chelsea is hopeful that other forms of treatment can be found for her to give her more of a chance to be with her family and believes that there are other options out there.
She continued: "I am thankful that I am able to start immunotherapy, as I had been previously been told that this wasn't available for me, but I am hoping that there are other treatments that could be made available.
"I know that I have an awful lot of fight left in me and I am willing to try whatever is available if it means that I am able to see my boys grow up.
"I have spoken to people who have said there are other options that could work and I will keep pushing for anything that is out there that could be successful.
"I am only 29 and should have my whole life ahead of me, but instead I am worried about who will look after my sons and how they will be cared for when I am gone, which is a position that nobody should ever be in."
Chelsea's friend Jordan Kisby has also set up a GoFundMe page in order to help Chelsea and her family make memories over the next year.
If you would like to donate to the appeal, please follow this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mum-293-young-kids-roughy-year-to-make-memories
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