Laura Mahon, 30, from St Helens, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumor in September 2021 when she was 27 weeks pregnant.
Doctors originally believed the baby was pressing on a nerve, but she was sent to The Walton Center for an MRI scan; which led to the discovery of the tumour.
She and her husband Danny, 29, made the toughest decision of their lives; and opted to bring their daughter into the world at 30 weeks.
On November 30, 2021, Sienna Grace Laura Mahon was born, weighing just 3.4lbs, at Warrington Hospital.
She was taken to the neonatal ward and placed in an incubator.
Sienna developed pneumothorax – a collapsed lung; so was transferred to Royal Oldham Hospital to receive specialized care.
Not knowing now what their future may look like, Laura and Danny decided to get married on January 8 2022 at Warrington Town Hall, while Sienna was still in hospital.
Laura said: “When Danny proposed and I realized we were pregnant, the plan was to wait to get married a few years to have Sienna on our big day, have her be our flower girl in a beautiful princess dress and everything.
“But when we got my diagnosis we just didn’t feel like we could wait and even though I did love our wedding day, you can see the sadness and worry in our eyes in the pictures – they aren’t the pictures we hoped for for our big day.”
Laura is currently undergoing any treatment possible to combat her brain tumor and be around as long as she can to create memories with her family, while also campaigning for brain tumor research.
Laura added: “Now my scan is stable and I’m feeling a bit better in myself we wanted to do something and contacted different venues seeing if they would let us take wedding pictures there and Peckforton Castle was amazing with us.
“We had full use of the venue, they recommended a photographer and they are our dream pictures, Sienna loved it and I wore the dress I bought ages ago for our big day and we have beautiful photographs for Sienna to look back on now.
“Honestly it was amazing and I’m so thankful for everyone who made it happen because life doesn’t end at diagnosis, life is about creating memories and I’m just so glad we got to create this one.”
Laura is documenting her fight and fundraising via her Instagram page @lauradowntherabbithole.
She is also fundraising for Brain Tumour Research via gofundme.com/f/laura-elizabeth-mahon-fight-with-brain-cancer