How one woman stood up to cancer, refused to give up dream of motherhood
Posted: Friday, September 05, 2008 2:03 PM by Jen Brown
Filed Under:
Health
From Dr. Nancy Snyderman, chief medical editorTODAY we reintroduced you to
a courageous young woman (video) who not only survived cancer twice, but helped change the dialogue of reproductive needs of cancer patients in this country.
I first met Lindsay Beck shortly after she was diagnosed with tongue cancer at the age of 22. She endured surgery and six weeks of radiation, but two years later, the cancer came back. This time, she not only needed more surgery, but radiation and chemotherapy as well. What she soon learned -- but what none of her doctors, myself included, ever told her -- was that the chemotherapy that would destroy the cancer would also most likely leave her infertile.
Lindsay refused to give up her dream of becoming a mother, and set out to preserve her own fertility. She found the answer at Stanford University, one of the few institutions equipped to freeze her unfertilized eggs. Her future secure, she went ahead with the chemotherapy. Today she is cancer-free, and executive director of Fertile Hope, a nonprofit organization she founded in 2001 to address the reproductive needs of cancer patients and survivors.
Shortly after she married her husband Jordan, Lindsay became pregnant, naturally, with her daughter Paisley, now 2. When we caught up with her recently, she had just given birth to her son Walker, who was also conceived naturally.
Since we were only able to show you a brief portion of my conversation with Lindsay on the show, I wanted you to be able
to watch more online:
Watch videoLindsay, now 32, is truly an inspiration. By standing up to her cancer, she changed the course of her own life and she took her doctors, myself included, along for the ride.
