Rebekah Davies will be saying ‘I do’ at the hospice where she receives palliative care, with the day themed on her love of Disney
Rebekah Davies has only weeks to live(Image: Cathy Davies)
Since she was born, Rebekah Davies has had neurofibromatosis type 1, a genetic condition that causes tumours to grow along nerves and can also affect skin and bone development. But up until her twenties, she went through life with no real major issues from her condition, moving to Tor Point in Plymouth, to study sociology at the city’s university, then becoming a nursery assistant looking after children.
Two years ago, Rebekah, from Pen-y-bont, Carmarthenshire, started experiencing pain in her right leg. She went to hospital in Plymouth, and was misdiagnosed with sciatica by doctors. But the pain she was feeling became worse and worse.
In January this year, she began vomiting and experiencing severe stomach problems. Her partner, John, then discovered a lump on her abdomen, and demanded that the hospital gave Rebekah a scan to investigate.
Rebekah Davies pictured graduating from Plymouth University(Image: Cathy Davies)
A scan and a blood test was carried out in March, when it was discovered the 25-year-old had a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour, a rare and aggressive type of soft tissue sarcoma that originates in the cells surrounding peripheral nerves. Only 100 cases are diagnosed in Britain every year.
In April, she went to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London for a tumour to be removed, and she began to recover, surpassing expectations by walking again within a couple of weeks. But when she returned home, she began to feel sick again.
After further investigation, it was discovered that it had come back, having grown in her abdomen and into her bones. It is believed she now only has weeks left to live. Rebekah is at Tŷ Olwen Hospice in Swansea, where she is receiving palliative care, with a morphine driver and anti-sickness medication.
“Where we are now, it’s weeks rather than months,” Rebekah’s mum, Cathy Davies said.
“I’m not sure if we have processed much of anything at all, to be honest. Her sister is absolutely heartbroken as we all are. It’s figuring out how to, even though we know what’s coming, to make it as happy as possible for as long as we can until whatever happens happens.”
Mrs Davies shared how her daughter had shown great courage in the face of the adversity she is faced with, and has something very special to look forward to.
“She has been pretty good,” she said. “Rebekah is stronger than all of us put together, to be honest. She’s just always smiling and always happy, and we talk a lot about stupid things we’ve done, where one of us has fallen – stupid things where we’ve been screaming laughing over. That’s her sense of humour, just daft!
“She’s been going on a straight line at the moment, and has got an idea of where things are. She didn’t want to know the exact time she has left, but she had quite a good grasp on what the outcome is going to be.
“She’s happy. She’s actually getting married this weekend at the hospice on Saturday, which is lovely. It was only arranged last Saturday to go ahead with it, as she wasn’t sure if she wanted to bother or whether it would be worth it, but she’s come round now, as it’s what she wanted to do.
“She is an absolute Disney fanatic, to the point where we’re all dressing up as Disney characters for the wedding. She was supposed to go to Disneyland in Florida for three weeks on her honeymoon, but that’s not going to happen now.
“For the wedding, Rebekah will be dressing as Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and because John works in shipping engineering, and boats, and things like that, he will be the Prince from the Little Mermaid. We’re all going as different characters in a sea theme.”
Rebekah has remained positive, her mum has said(Image: Cathy Davies)
A fundraiser has been started to pay for Rebekah’s funeral, which you can donate to here. So far it has raised more than £2,100.
“We are just overwhelmed with how generous people have been,” Mrs Davies said. “I’m filling up every time a new donation comes in, sometimes from people I don’t even know. It’s going to be such a help, that we can give her a really good send off.”
Mrs Davies said she hoped that her daughter’s story would help others with neurofibromatosis (NF) type 1 to be vigilant if they experience similar symptoms to Rebekah.
She said: “The thing we really want people to know, is as far as the actual cancer Rebekah has got, there’s only 100 people in Britain who get diagnosed with it every year, and 50% of those are people with NF. Even cancers with NF are more prevalent, this one is particularly awful. We’d never heard of it until March.
“We hear about breast cancer and ovarian cancer, and things like that, but we had no idea this thing existed, and if we had, we may have been a little bit more vigilant with the pain in her leg. That’s really what we want to get out there, for other people to be vigilant if they are in the same situation.”
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