‘Nothing short of a miracle’: Montreal-area woman with ovarian cancer gives birth to healthy twins

As long as Joanne Photiades could remember, she’d wanted to be a mother.

So when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 14 months ago and was told that to survive, one of her ovaries would have to be removed, her first thought was maternal.

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“The only thing in the back of my head was — we’re going to remove one ovary, but we would still have the right one left, and that’s all we need,” Photiades said.

“We just need one to work.”

And so began an agonizing 14-month race to motherhood.

The 39-year-old resident of Pointe-Claire, a Montreal suburb, first noticed symptoms in January 2015.

She felt sharp pains in her abdomen. After a few weeks, they subsided. Then came an urgency to go to the bathroom, bloating, no appetite and weight loss.

She Googled the symptoms: she had classic signs of ovarian cancer.

An ultrasound found a growth the size of a grapefruit, but she says her doctor at the time dismissed it.

“The first gynecological oncologist I had seen said, ‘Cysts come and go’ — and not to worry.”

But worry she did.

Joanne Photiades describes ovarian cancer symptoms1:35

World’s 35th recorded case

Determined, Photiades got an MRI at a private clinic and found a new doctor.

Her instincts were right.

Days later, she was diagnosed with a Stage 1A anaplastic carcinoma in mucinous ovarian tumour, a rare kind of ovarian cancer.

Photiades said hers is the 35th recorded case in the world.

Because there are so few known cases, very little research has been done on this form of ovarian cancer.

Within days of that diagnosis, Photiades was on standby for surgery. By the time the tumour was removed, on July 8, 2015, it had nearly doubled in size and weighed more than 4.5 kilograms. But it was out.

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Wedding bells

Remarkably, while all of this was unfolding, Photiades was planning a September wedding.

The plan was after the vows, the kids would follow right away.

One week before her Sept. 23 wedding, Photiades underwent another operation to remove 23 lymph nodes. The tests all came back negative: The cancer hadn’t yet spread, but it had been aggressive.

It wasn’t a matter of if it would come back, but when.

Joanne Photiades married Dennis Vellopoulos in a traditional Greek wedding in September 2015, just a week after undergoing surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes. (submitted by Joanne Photiades)

To stay ahead of it, her surgeon dealt her a crushing blow. Photiades would have to have a hysterectomy.

She was given a choice: have the surgery immediately and never experience giving birth to a child, or take a gamble.

Her doctor was willing to risk giving her six months to try to conceive. A chance.

What if it didn’t work?

“I wouldn’t let that thought enter my mind,” Photiades said. “To me, it was just a matter of time. It was going to work.”

Christmas news

Two in-vitro fertilization treatments and three months later, on Christmas Eve, Photiades and her husband found out she was pregnant.

“I just cried, I was so happy,” she said.

The next nine months were an emotional roller coaster, however, with the spectre of the cancer’s return always hovering.

“Every time you’d go for an ultrasound, you’re so excited to see how they’ve grown, and yet at the same time, it’s, ‘Can you look at my ovary? Can you see if it’s swollen?'”

“Every appointment, you don’t sleep the night before.”

Photiades focused on staying positive, on her blessings, on the support of her community and her new husband.

“I never said, ‘Why me?’ because, why not me? It can’t always happen to the neighbour.”

A month ago, on  Aug. 10, Photiades gave birth to twin boys, Nikolas and Lucas. They were three weeks premature, but otherwise fine.

“Having gone through the whole pregnancy being healthy and that they are born healthy, when you first hear them cry, it’s nothing short of a miracle,” she says.

“When you see their little faces and your husband’s face, you know you did the right thing.”

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Joanne Photiades snuggles her son Lucas. (CBC)

Paying it forward

Photiades says she is grateful and wants to pay it forward.

She’s become a spokeswoman for Ovarian Cancer Canada and is raising awareness about the importance of early detection.

She’s also taking part in this weekend’s Walk of Hope in Montreal.

“If there’s just one more life that’s saved out there by raising awareness, it’s one more healthy family.”  

Montreal Roller Derby players were among the hundreds of participants in the Ovarian Cancer Walk in 2014. (Melinda Dalton/CBC)