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Nov 13, 2023

Mum 'sent home to die' with lung cancer stuns doctors with her response

Sarah Clarke was told her lung cancer had spread and nothing could be done to save her but now she says: “I believe it’s love and hope that got me through” Throwing her head back with laughter as she

Sarah Clarke was told her lung cancer had spread and nothing could be done to save her but now she says: “I believe it’s love and hope that got me through”

Throwing her head back with laughter as she runs around the garden with her two children, Sarah Clarke has an incredible reason to cherish every moment with them.

Because four years ago she was certain she would never live to see them grow up. Sarah, 43, had been told that the lung cancer diagnosed two years earlier had spread and that nothing could be done to save her, despite ops to remove two tumours from her brain.

And on Mother’s Day in March 2019 she was sent home to spend the last six weeks of her life with her heartbroken husband Adam – and facing the agonising task of telling children Joe, 13, and Georgina, 11, she would not be with them on her birthday in April. “I was in complete disbelief,” she says. “The life I had planned ahead of me with my family disappeared. The hardest thing was realising I wouldn’t see my kids grow up.” Sarah’s only solace was that she had prepared for this moment.

Desperate to ensure her family had lasting memories of her, she had filmed 40 poignant videos for her children to watch as they got older – on subjects as varied as puberty and sex education, to her own first kiss, her wedding day and her favourite films and music. She even planned her funeral. But then, as her days were finally running out, the unbelievable happened. She lived to see her 39th birthday – and beyond.

Brain tumours usually grow back within six weeks of removal, but scans showed no signs – leaving her neurosurgeon at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital, consultant Saurabh Sinha, hardly able to believe his eyes.

Since then all her scans have been clear and in January this year she was told that, against all odds, she was in remission. Cancer Research UK says the chance of someone with metastatic lung cancer surviving five years or more is just 4%. Now Sarah feels almost back to her old self and has her own explanation for her recovery. “I believe it’s love and hope that got me through,” she says. “I felt so loved. It was amazing. I had been in complete disbelief.

“I was sent home to die. But after doing all of the videos and the letters. I thought, ‘I’ve had such a good life’, and I want my kids to live their lives, to follow their dreams. I feel having everyone around me, having this self-actualisation, is why I am still here.”

Sarah has always tried to keep fit and make the most of life. She loved hiking with Adam, 42, who works for HMRC, in the Peak District and the Lakes – and even completed the Sheffield Half Marathon two months before the diagnosis of metastatic lung cancer in July 2017, when she was 37. Sarah’s entire family rallied round. Her twin sister Alison quit her job in London and moved back to Sheffield, while her older sister Ruth, 46, and shattered parents Dave and Jane Phillips, both 74, got ready to become carers for the children.

Sarah says: “Alison was preparing herself to be like their surrogate mum. And Adam was amazing, it made me realise what a fantastic relationship we have and how he’s the best dad in the world. I realised how lucky I was the kids had him – that they’d grow into well-rounded, amazing people. Of course it all affected Adam massively, but he took it in his stride.”

Sarah briefly began to feel better after several rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy at Western Park Hospital in Sheffield. She even carried on her job as a senior public health specialist until she was diagnosed with her first brain tumour in November 2018. She says the thumping headaches were “like there was a fairground” in her head.

A CT scan also revealed a second brain tumour two months later. Both were removed in two separate ops. Sarah says: “Then my surgeon told me I had less than six months. That’s when I started making videos for the children for when they were older, telling them all I could about me and giving them advice for the future. I still haven’t been able to watch those videos back, but maybe when Joe and Georgina are older we will do that.

“I also planned for my funeral, to make it as easy as possible for Adam. I asked mums from the kids’ school to make a speech, and I met the celebrant to talk about the service. I chose Movin’ On Up by Primal Scream to be played. I dance around the kitchen to it and I thought everyone at the funeral could dance too. I just didn’t want it to be sad.

“I did so much reflecting on my life with letters to family and friends. The thought of missing out on stuff with the kids was heartbreaking. But I was happy.” Sarah was prepared for her health to quickly take a turn for the worse. She spent a brief time in a hospice and then, on that March day in 2019, was sent home to die.

The surgeon told her she wouldn’t live to see her 39th birthday in April. With Sarah propped up in her hospice bed, Adam took what he thought would be one of the last photos of his wife and their children on her final Mother’s Day. Telling her children what was happening was so hard for Sarah. “It took me a year to tell the kids about the first diagnosis.

“When I got the second brain tumour and I was told I was going to die I spoke to Georgina first. When I told Joe he ran to bed and just screamed and screamed.” All the time Sarah was constantly fighting for survival. During her cancer battle she had kept up her Pilates classes, went vegan and started juicing. But after being told she wouldn’t reach her 39th birthday, she jokes she “came home and started inhaling white bread”. “I was just like, ‘I can finally just stop.’”

But Sarah has not stopped. “In May 2021, I hiked across Blencathra in the Lake District and I have also done Snowdon. I never thought I would be able to do anything like that again but I feel like I am just getting stronger and stronger.”

She now sends consultant Saurabh a photo of herself marking her birthday every year to thank him for his work. He says: “I told her she wouldn’t be here for her birthday, I’m delighted to be wrong. I’ve never known metastatic lung cancer to be cured. It’s amazing she’s still here, and it’s nice to see the photograph every year that Sarah sends me.

“The only explanation is that it was down to a combination of the drug treatment for the lung cancer she had before the brain surgery and her positive mental attitude. People who have a positive attitude towards their condition often do better and we don’t know why. She’s incredible.”

Now the Clarke family are planning bucket-list adventures they never thought they would experience. They’re going zip-lining, skiing and climbing in the French Alps – and have booked a trip to New Zealand for 2025. Sarah has retrained as a life coach and volunteers as a “cancer buddy” at Sheffield’s Cavendish Cancer Care, giving support to other sufferers.

She smiles: “I still take every day as it comes, but I am also grateful for every single moment I get to live. Now I am just savouring being able to do all the things with my family I never thought I would live to see.”

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