After Giving Birth to Her 3rd Child, She Collapsed – Then Learned She’d Been Living with Incurable Cancer for 5 Years

Michelle Hughes had always dreamed of motherhood. But behind the joy of raising three children, a quiet ache beneath her ribs lingered for years. Doctors dismissed it as a harmless liver cyst. Scans showed no change. Life moved on.

She gave birth to Juliet, then Adeline, and finally Hatton—each pregnancy shadowed by discomfort that never quite faded. Then, days after her third delivery, Michelle collapsed in front of her children. Her heart raced at 180 bpm. Scans revealed tumors in her lungs and 15 cysts in her liver. The benign diagnosis she’d trusted for five years had masked something far more sinister.

The truth came in a sterile hospital room: Stage 4 Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma (EHE)—a rare, incurable cancer that had silently spread. A liver transplant was her only hope, but further scans crushed it. The cancer had reached her thigh and knee. Her doctor said another patient with fewer tumors had lived only months.

Michelle held her newborn and thought, He’ll never remember me. But she refused to surrender.

She found a specialist who reframed her reality: You’ve already lived with this for five years. You’ve carried three children. You’ve survived. That moment shifted everything.

Michelle chose to live—not just survive. She moved her family to Prince Edward Island, started treatment, and began sharing her journey online. Her posts weren’t for inspiration—they were for her children, a living archive of love, grit, and presence.

She tracked each week since diagnosis not as a countdown, but a celebration. Her “living list” included everyday goals: watching Hatton start kindergarten, laughing with her daughters, reclaiming joy.

Michelle’s story isn’t just about illness. It’s about resilience, misdiagnosis, and the fierce will to live meaningfully in the face of uncertainty. She didn’t get the ending she deserved—but she’s rewriting the middle with purpose.