Mum, 28, diagnosed with terminal cancer after doctors insisted symptom was pregnancy side effect
Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
In February 2025, Holly Stubbs was 31 weeks pregnant with her third child when she noticed a lump on her tongue.
At first, it was just dismissed as a side effect of her pregnancy. A dentist had told her this lump was a pregnancy granuloma – a noncancerous growth that would go away once she’d had her kid.
The 28-year-old was apparently told ‘how could it be cancer, you don’t drink or smoke’.
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However, Holly ended up being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
By the April, this lump had ‘grown significantly’, causing her pain when she was eating but was still reassured it was this pregnancy side effect.
Having to pressure for firm answers, a biopsy was performed with the lump removed from the side of her tongue, which looked like a large ulcer.
Holly was soon called by the hospital and brought in as she was told she had stage 1 tongue cancer and need to give birth to her son as soon as possible.
Sharing her story on Facebook, she said: “I spent all day wondering if my children would grow up without a mother, if my baby would be born safely, why I was told countless times ‘it couldn't be cancer' because I didn't smoke or drink?”
Holly gave birth to Harry early and then began treatment.
In July, she underwent a preventive neck dissection to remove her lymph nodes and stop the cancer spreading.
However, it was found that the cancer had spread and she required additional treatment.
She explained: “The scans were wrong. It had spread and it was complex in the way it jumped levels of lymph nodes. It could be anywhere in my body at this rate.”
Over the past year, she’s had half of her tongue removed.
“The recovery meant not being able to hold baby Harry, only 5 weeks old,” a GoFundMe page to support her treatment reads.
“She then went through 30 days of high dose radiotherapy, travelling to hospital every day with Lee and Harry, not the maternity she wished for.
“For months after radiotherapy, she then fought through excruciating side effects.”
A weakened immune system, led to a bout of pneumonia forcing her to spend Christmas in hospital.
And earlier this year, Holly began experiencing pain in her jaw and was repeatedly told it was due to her wisdom teeth.
But she knew something wasn’t right and had a scan in April.
This showed the cancer had spread further to her lungs and she was told she is being treated as a palliative care patient as ‘nothing else could be done’.
But Holly has found ‘the best oncologist in the UK’ and treatments and clinical trials she wants to explore, but the GoFundMe is being used to help her cover the costs.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Jess Battison