Emma hopes to create lasting memories with her family
Emma with her daughter Katie(Image: Supplied)
A devastated mother-of-two is determined to focus her energies on making memories with her family after being told her cancer has spread and is now incurable. Emma Booth, 46, of Hull, has been battling triple-negative breast cancer since 2021.
Recognised as an aggressive form of breast cancer, more likely to recur compared to others, it required Emma to have a lumpectomy, followed by preventative radiotherapy and chemotherapy in 2022. She then had a mastectomy in 2024, followed again by chemotherapy, after which she was told she was in remission.
However, on January 29 this year, she was given the heartbreaking news at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham that the cancer had returned. Not only that, but it had spread to multiple organs.
When Emma was called for a clinical review of her results, she learned her cancer had relapsed and metastasised in her lungs and lymph nodes. She has been told her care is palliative and is on a course of oral chemotherapy.
‘Memory making’ fundraising campaign launched
Emma has dedicated her career to the NHS as a Senior Support Worker, helping people recover from mental health challenges. She is continuing to work and told doctors she doesn’t want to know her prognosis, as she is focused on positivity and enjoying time with her family.
The busy parent is also studying a university course, mainly from home, having set a goal to become an occupational therapist before she was first diagnosed with cancer in 2021.
Emma’s studies have been interrupted at every diagnosis, but she is now determined to attain her degree and not pause the course again. Throughout her difficult times, Emma says it has been the family’s combined passion for sport which has helped to keep her spirits up, following both Hull City and Hull Kingston Rovers, whilst she and husband Jamie have supported children Katie, 15, and Ted, nine, as they have enjoyed their own sporting success.
Katie has recently been made captain of Hull City Ladies under-16s, and also plays for Hessle Sporting Merlins, whilst Ted is thriving playing in the Junior Premier League for First Touch and also playing for his grassroots team Springhead FC.
Friends and family have launched a fundraising page – ‘Emma’s Memory Making Mission’ – to help relieve the financial pressure on them, to allow Emma to explore alternative or complementary therapies, to help with travel and treatment costs, and importantly to provide funds for them to enjoy special experiences together whilst also providing a legacy for the children.
Emma said her and husband Jamie’s support network of family and friends have been “amazing” and “really rallied around us”. She added: “The families at the children’s sports clubs have been fantastic, and watching Katie and Ted succeed in their football has helped me get through these difficult years.
“They’ve not missed a training session or a match and I’ve always been there. Watching my children enjoy and succeed in what they do is everything to me, and it really hurts me to feel that I may miss out seeing all they achieve in the future.”
Speaking of the fundraiser, she said: “I want to focus on the positives. My outlook is if life gives you lemons you make lemonade, and I think that is how I have to look at life.
“My children are at the age now where they will form lifetime memories, so I don’t want it to be anything but good memories they have of their time with me.”
To make a donation to Emma’s fundraising mission, visit the gofundme page Emma’s Memory Making Mission.
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