{"id":681338,"date":"2026-07-09T00:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T00:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681338\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T00:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T00:24:28","slug":"oncologist-shocked-as-woman-given-three-years-to-live-makes-full-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681338\/","title":{"rendered":"Oncologist ‘shocked’ as woman given three years to live makes full recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mum Claire Webb, 32, was told she had cancer after a trip to soft play with her sonNeil Shaw<\/a> Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)<\/p>\n

07:46, 08 Jul 2026Updated 09:11, 08 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

\"Doctors<\/p>\n

Doctors now say there is no evidence of disease<\/p>\n

A mum has officially outlived her devastating prognosis after doctors gave her just three years left to live as they say there is \u2018no evidence of disease\u2019 remaining. Claire Webb was just 32 and raising her two-year-old son, Teddy, when she received the news.<\/p>\n

She had taken her little boy to a soft play centre when a knock to the chest caused strange swelling \u2013 prompting her to ring the doctor. Two weeks and numerous tests later, Claire was given a terrifying diagnosis of \u201cvery aggressive\u201d stage four breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Even more heartbreaking was the news that mum-of-one was unlikely to live to see her son start school in three years\u2019 time. \u201cIt absolutely floored me,\u201d said Claire, who works as a team manager at the National Grid in Worcester.<\/p>\n

Doctors find a way of making us young again, eating like a Greek slashes heart disease risk, and cure for deadly cancer found at the bottom of the sea – all this and more in our science newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

Claire during her treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI entered a grieving process for the life that I thought I would have \u2013 the three little boys that I [hoped to] grow, birth and then nurture into adulthood, the holiday destinations my husband and I spoke about doing when we reached 10\/20\/30 years married.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire had no idea anything was amiss until the soft play trip in April 2023. She said: \u201cI knocked my right breast, and within hours it had swelled up and a hard lump formed across the top of my breast.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband, Mike, told me to ring the doctors after it had not gone away a couple of days later. I thought it was related to breastfeeding my son \u2013 cancer didn\u2019t even enter my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five days after knocking her chest, Claire went to the doctor and was given an emergency referral \u2013 which she put down to her family history of breast cancer, with her grandmother dying of it in the 1980s. Her appointment came 17 days after the soft play incident, and she was diagnosed the same day.<\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

Claire during her treatment<\/p>\n

Claire said: \u201cA nurse checked me over and then told me I would need an ultrasound. I remember when she left the room I said to my husband ‘she’s just looked at me like I’m going to die soon’. He told me to stop being so silly and it was just procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a biopsy found the cancer, with a mammogram confirming the diagnosis. She went on to have a full-body MRI scan, with doctors initially believing her case to be treatable. But in early May, her oncologist delivered another blow \u2013 that \u201csuspicious spots\u201d had been found on her lung, and a PET scan found that the cancer had spread to her lungs.<\/p>\n

It meant that her treatment could only manage the cancer and keep her comfortable \u2013 rather than eradicate it. Claire said: \u201cI didn\u2019t feel unwell at all. We\u2019d been trying for our second baby for about 12 months and we weren\u2019t getting pregnant, so we were arranging to see a fertility doctor when I was diagnosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was extremely difficult to wrap my head around as I didn\u2019t think people could get breast cancer in their thirties. It was honestly the biggest shock of my entire life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked if I would see my little boy start school, and was told only if I was very lucky, and that it is a very aggressive cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

Claire Webb<\/p>\n

The mum started a cancer journal to put her thoughts to paper, and went into \u201cpractical mode\u201d \u2013 updating her will, and having heartbreaking discussions with her husband about the possibility of him one day remarrying. S he said: \u201cI went to my local funeral home and we sat for hours discussing my funeral. It felt like an out of body experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

To ease the transition of having an active mum, she even found herself pulling back from Teddy. She said: \u201cI loved him so much that I started to withdraw from him to make it easier for when I\u2019m not here. I would keep this stiff upper lip and, don’t get me wrong, I love beyond the bones of him but I needed to know he would be OK when I wasn’t here.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I stopped playing with him and having too much fun with him. Looking back now, it was my way of surviving the shock and trauma that had just landed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire had eggs taken in June 2023 to honour her dream of expanding their family one day, before starting numerous rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy. She said: \u201cDue to chemotherapy needing to start, we had a three-hour window to make the decision to go ahead with embryo freezing and find the money to fund it, as I needed to start the following day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in those initial days, people thought we were mad to still have this dream of another baby, but it is what kept us going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

Claire with her family<\/p>\n

Incredibly, despite the bleak prognosis, after only three chemotherapy sessions, Claire was declared \u2018no evidence of disease\u2019 \u2013 meaning no cancer has been detected on scans from that point onwards. Claire said: \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel real. My oncologist told me I had a guardian angel because this doesn’t happen a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best we could hope for in the beginning was that the cancer hadn’t grown and therefore to hear and see that it had disappeared \u2013 I think we were all shocked at how well my body responded to treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing declared NED is the best result anyone with stage four cancer can hope for, so I feel very lucky that my body has been able to do that. It opened a lot more doors for treatment \u2013 such as a mastectomy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire was able to have her right breast removed in a mastectomy in November that year, amidst the other treatments. Previously, doctors had said that surgery was off the table completely.<\/p>\n

While she doesn\u2019t know if it has changed her overall prognosis \u2013 as she doesn\u2019t wish to know \u2013 Claire continues to have immunotherapy injections ever three weeks and is considered an \u201cexceptional responder\u201d to treatment. She said: \u201cI am probably the healthiest I have ever been in my life.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The cancer was very aggressive and stage 4<\/p>\n

\u201cMy oncologist is as shocked as we are to this day. I haven\u2019t asked [about my prognosis\u201d and wish I never had in the first place \u2013 all I know is I\u2019m extremely lucky, and there are lots of drugs available to me now.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy treatment path changed from palliative care to managing my disease and keeping me comfortable with curable intent \u2013 which means some doctors believe I can be cured from stage four breast cancer. I have the odd side effects from my immunotherapy injection and I do feel the cold a lot more from lack of lymph nodes, and I do get tired more easily so I am trying to listen to my body more \u2013 but overall my health is great.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is looking good, my lungs are looking good, so physically I am great.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the experience has taken a mental toll, she was channelled her energies into personal training sessions at the gym, and is hopeful that she can resume growing her family and give little Teddy a sibling soon. And most special of all, last September she got to see something she could only have dreamed of just a few years ago: seeing her little boy start school.<\/p>\n

‘I wrote cards for all his milestones’<\/p>\n

Claire added: \u201cTed starting reception class was the most emotional day of my life. Getting his uniform on and walking him into school knowing that there was a time when I didn’t think I would ever do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me sad to think that he and Mike would have had to figure it out themselves without me but here I am \u2013 I do school pick up and drop off every single day. It is only hospital appointments that stop me from doing the school run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so obsessed with my little boy because I know how it feels to think you will not ever experience these moments. He probably thinks I am so annoying but we were as honest as we could be with Teddy about my diagnosis, and his maturity and kindness just knocks me for six constantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was diagnosed initially, I would spend my evenings writing him birthday cards and letters to open at every milestone in his life as I didn’t think I would be here. So far, I have managed to throw away two letters as I have been here, living it with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mum Claire Webb, 32, was told she had cancer after a trip to soft play with her sonNeil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2199,55106,847,59,102,2196,180857,2531,14603,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-681338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-breast-cancer","tag-breastfeeding","tag-cancer","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-hospitals","tag-national-grid-plc","tag-pregnancy","tag-school-run","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}