A mother-to-be has revealed how she thought her extreme morning sickness was just another symptom of pregnancy – but it was actually the sign of a devastating cancer diagnosis to come.

Sophia Yasin, from Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, was delighted to discover that she was expecting a child shortly after buying a house with her husband, Lewis Osborne, 29, in June 2024.

The 29-year-old had suspected that such life-changing news would come with its health drawbacks, and chalked up being sick every couple of hours to what she suspected were ‘really bad symptoms’ of morning sickness.

Ms Yasin would also struggle to sleep with night sweats and persistent itching driving her crazy at bedtime – but she was assured that these were all a ‘normal’ part of an admittedly gruelling pregnancy.

However, when the mother-to-be collapsed while working at just 14 weeks pregnant, Ms Yasin was quickly rushed to hospital for tests.

Doctors initially thought she had pneumonia, but scans and a biopsy revealed a tumour had been growing over her heart, with further tests uncovering she a rare type of cancer in her blood, pre-mediastinal B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The diagnosis meant Ms Yasin had to make the devastating decision to terminate her pregnancy at just 15 weeks in.

‘Everyone told me [the symptoms] were very normal in the first trimester and should ease up,’ she said.

Sophia Yasin was delighted to discover that she had fallen pregnant shortly after buying a house with her husband Lewis Osborne

The 29-year-old had suspected that such life-changing news would come with its health drawbacks, and chalked up her symptoms to bad morning sickness

The mother-to-be collapsed while working at just 14 weeks pregnant and was quickly rushed to hospital for tests

Recalling the day she ‘blacked out’ in work, Ms Yasin said that it was only because she was pregnant – and being prioritised for testing – that the cancer in her blood was uncovered.

While she was receiving treatment in hospital, the mother-to-be suspected that something was wrong, but she was caught off-guard when a woman on the ward handed her a Macmillan Cancer Support card.

‘I burst out crying. I thought ‘what has she given me this for?’,’ Ms Yasin continued, before telling how doctors broke the news about her diagnosis to her.

‘I remember saying ‘what does this mean for the baby?’ – I remember being numb.’

Her diagnosis was confirmed on September 12 last year and medics had to act quickly to slow down the rapidly-growing mass over her heart – which was nearly the same size as her organ.

Ms Yasin said doctors gave her and Mr Osborne ‘a few hours to decide’ whether she wanted to continue her pregnancy, which would risk her unborn baby developing the mass and complications, or to terminate it.

They decided not to continue with the pregnancy and Ms Yasin went through the process of an induced abortion of their ‘beautiful and tiny little girl’, who they named Kainaat Pearl.

Doctors were so concerned about the pace of the growth that Ms Yasin was hooked up to a drip to begin the process of chemotherapy during her abortion.

Ms Yasin burst into tears when she was handed a Macmillan Cancer Support card by a woman on the ward

Ms Yasin said doctors gave her and Mr Osborne ‘a few hours to decide’ whether she wanted to continue her pregnancy, which would risk her unborn baby developing the mass and complications

They decided not to continue with the pregnancy and Ms Yasin went through the process of an induced abortion of their ‘beautiful and tiny little girl’, who they named Kainaat Pearl

She and her husband still hope to try for another baby but have been advised to wait for two years due to the risk of her cancer returning

‘I went into fight or flight mode,’ she said. ‘I was grieving a baby but trying to have treatment. I lost a lot in a short period of time.’

‘I went from looking at prams and cots to looking at wigs. I lost my hair, my baby and my old life.’ 

Ma Yasin went into remission in January 2025 after going through six subsequent rounds of chemotherapy, and is now commemorating her diagnosis date with a 7km walk with friends and family to raise funds for Lymphoma Action.

She said: ‘Every step will be taking it for the baby and everyone we’ve lost.’

She and her husband still hope to try for another baby but have been advised to wait for two years due to the risk of the cancer returning.