A dream of motherhood - ‘I HAD IVF AT AGE 16!'

Despite having a hysterectomy as a child, Queenstown businesswoman Rebecca still holds out hope of becoming a mum

- Cloe Willetts

When most people hear the word “hysterectomy”, they don’t imagine a toddler undergoing the radical womb-removal procedure. But for young Queenstown woman Rebecca Freeman, having the surgery to remove rare muscle cancer as a two-year-old saved her life.

Although the 23-year-old property management agency owner won’t ever be able to carry children, she had IVF for the first time at 16 to harvest her eggs, since her ovaries are still hung inside her, as though on a clothesline.

“After a doctor’s visit at 18 months old, I was flown to Starship children’s hospital in Auckland, where they found I had rhabdomyosarcoma, a muscular cancer of the uterus,” explains Hawke’s Bay-born Rebecca.

“I was one of two children in the whole world at that time who had this particular type of cancer, so they worked as a team to decide how to best approach it. The only other boy was in America and he had it in his nose, but sadly he died while I was being treated.”

After having chemotherapy as a tot, Rebecca went into remission, but two months later, the cancer returned. “The doctors had to send notes on everything they did with me to doctors around the world so they could help find the eventual cure for me,” she explains, adding that she underwent more chemo, as well as radiotherapy.

“Despite the two procedures, the cancer was still hanging around and so it was decided I’d have a partial hysterectomy to prevent it spreading.”