Diagnosed with cancer the same day I GAVE BIRTH

Just six hours before having her baby, Brooke Taylor received life-changing news

- FIONA KINLOCH, LUCY LAING

Each time I gazed down at my ever-growing bump, my thoughts excitedly turned to the future. I loved speculating if my baby would have my dark-brown eyes and my partner Damon’s fair hair. I imagined the moment he or she would say their first word, and what that would be. And I vividly pictured the moment I’d hold my arms out to help with their first steps. But just before I gave birth in July 2019, a shock diagnosis changed everything and my excitement was quickly superseded by sorrow and the fear that I’d never get to experience any of those things I’d been imagining.

Damon and I had been friends since primary school, but it wasn’t until 2018, when he was 30 and I was 31, that we finally crossed the line and started dating.

Charming, funny and incredibly driven, he was everything I was looking for in a partner, and it wasn’t long before talk turned to our mutual desire for marriage and children.

I’d worked hard over the years to build a successful career in public relations, even launching my own media business in 2017. Yet, despite it all, I knew that the only job I ever really wanted in life was to be a mum. And when I saw a positive result on a pregnancy test in November 2018, I was thrilled.

It was quickly followed by more good news when Damon proposed that Christmas, and all at once it felt like my dreams were coming true.

After routine scans showed nothing out of the ordinary, Damon and I allowed ourselves to get caught up in our own little pregnancy bubble. Leaving the gender a surprise, we set about painting the nursery a neutral beige, bought unisex sleepsuits and talked about names.