Longwood grandmother had 27cm cancer tumour

Jun 6 2009 by Anne-Marie Senior, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SHE PRAYED she would live to see her children grow up.

Now, Jenny Coupland has just celebrated her 60th birthday after surviving THREE cancer fights.

The Longwood grandmother is living life to the full after 30 years of battling an illness doctors thought would kill her.

The mum-of-three has endured a hysterectomy, lost the majority of her lung and had a 27cm tumour removed in a bid to beat cancer.

Now she has nothing but praise for the medics who have given her the chance of life.

Jenny, of Ayton Road, said: “When you hear the words ‘you have got cancer’, your world comes tumbling down. You always imagine the worst.

“But I have always seen it as a challenge and tried to be positive.

“I was not brought up Christian, but I started to believe in God after my first cancer scare.

“I prayed for five years that I would live until my youngest daughter – who was three at the time – was at least eight and would have some memories of me.

“I’m very lucky that I got a lot longer.”

Jenny – originally from Edgerton – was just 30 when medics first discovered she was suffering cancer.

A routine hysterectomy due to fibroids showed cancerous cells had been growing around her uterus – called endometrial stromal sarcoma.

She was immediately given radiotherapy for the condition and luckily no further signs to suggest the cancer had spread were found.

For years she lived a normal life until 1998 when she started coughing-up phlegm containing small traces of blood.

She said: “I was very ignorant about it and didn't bother getting it checked out.

“Then in the September, I coughed up what I can only describe as a big scab, like a clot. I thought then I had better go to the doctors.”

A chest x-ray, followed by an endoscopy investigation and a biopsy to remove tissue confirmed she had developed a secondary tumour the size of a 10-pence piece on her right lung.

In December 1998, she had major surgery to remove the cancer and in February 1999 had two parts of her right lung taken away.

Just as she was recovering from the operation, she began to experience difficulty passing urine and a burning sensation when she was lying down.

Jenny said: “I was literally trying to sleep standing up because it was so painful when I laid down.”