A cancer survivor has beat all the odds by giving birth to twins after having her ovaries removed. Proud mum Shelly Battista, from Chicago, America, has welcomed her 'one per cent chance' babies into the world after undergoing gruelling cancer treatment.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2020 after noticing a lump when pumping milk for her first daughter Emelia. She initially thought it was a clogged milk duct - but decided to get it checked out when it didn't go away.
However, as Shelly does not have a family history of breast cancer and there were no known risk factors at the time, her evaluation was delayed until after Covid-19 rules started to relax.
When she was seen by a specialist, it was determined she had triple-negative breast cancer, which is known to grow quickly and doesn't respond to common treatments, according to the American Cancer Society.
After receiving her diagnoses, Shelly was hit with even more bad news, learning that she has a genetically higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Speaking to Kate Snow on NBC's Today show, she said: "We were just starting our life together, and we get this shocking news."
Not wanting to give up on her dream of having a large family, Shelly and her husband, Robert, visited reproductive specialist Dr Kara Goldman, who advised them to start fertility treatment before chemotherapy.
Dr Goldman told today: "[The type of] chemotherapy that is used in young patients with triple-negative breast cancer is very toxic to the ovaries.
"We started her fertility preservation journey two days later. She started medications and, two weeks later, she had eight frozen embryos."
Following this, Shelly underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.
She waited a year before starting fertility treatment, not knowing how long it would take her to get pregnant through embryo transfer.
Dr Goldman added: "The ovaries and the uterus function very independently of each other.
"In Shelly’s case, because she did not have ovaries producing hormones, we were able to provide her the hormones necessary for pregnancy."
On the third attempt, Shelly and Robert received the good news that the transfer had successfully taken.
Shelly said: "[Goldman] called me herself personally [with the news]. We were both ecstatic and crying and yelling."
Robert added: "This was the cherry on top. It was just awesome. We were going to have another kid, Shelly's healthy, everything was behind us at that point."
Even more remarkably, the couple learned at their first ultrasound appointment that they were having not one, but two babies.
As the clinic had only implanted one embryo, it's chance of splitting into identical twins in the uterus was only at one per cent.
Adding even more surprise to their birth story, the twins, Nina and Margot, were born on December 9, 2022, which happened to be the two-year anniversary of the day Shelly was declared cancer-free.
Robert said: "It's like the best celebration of Shelly's cancer journey. It's like, you've beaten cancer, and now here's this extra love you get on top of it. It will be the most important day of the year in our family."
Do you have an uplifting story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.
