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She Was Given ‘A Couple’ Years to Live. Twenty Years Later, She’s Alive and Inspiring Others
Some cancer patients turn to assisted suicide — in this case, she would’ve lost so much.
Yahoo news reported the story of a woman named Rachel Gilbert, 35, who was diagnosed with incurable cancer at the age of 15 and is still alive today.
Diagnosed with cancer at a young age
Gilbert was an athlete training to be a gymnast. Suddenly, she started losing her breath and becoming dizzy. She then experienced stomach pains and black stool, indicating internal bleeding.
Doctors determined that her hemoglobin levels were extremely low. They gave her two blood transfusions and some iron tablets, but her health problems continued.
An endoscopy and biopsy led to a cancer diagnosis. (An endoscopy is a tiny camera placed down the patient’s throat.)
Gilbert was diagnosed with gastrointestinal stromal tumors, a form of cancer in the digestive tract that is extremely rare, especially in young people, and has no cure.
She recalled lying in bed thinking, “I’m never going to see another Christmas.”
