"How do you tell your child that you're dying?" asks Katie Barson, a single mum from Mansfield who was recently told she had two years to live after her breast cancer returned. The 35-year-old, who is yet to tell her 12-year-old daughter Freya the heart-wrenching news, gave permission to Nottinghamshire Live to share her story to raise awareness.
"I haven't got time to be sick, I haven't got time to die," said Ms Barson, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2020, just before the first lockdown during the Covid pandemic. "Everything had to be attended alone, it was a very tricky time to be diagnosed with cancer," she recalled.
Following surgery and rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she was told last December that she was going into remission. However, after experiencing pain in her shoulder and chest in September, she went back for a check-up.
