Woman Who Declined Cancer Treatments to Give Unborn Baby Life Dies 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 18, 2007
Aberdeen, Scotland (LifeNews.com) — Anna Radosz will truly be remembered as a hero who put the life of her unborn child ahead of her own. Diagnosed with a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, Radosz declined to take her child’s life in an abortion so she could save her own and declined the chemotherapy treatments that could have helped her.
Six months into the pregnancy, Radosz was given the bad news that she needed treatment to combat a malignant melanoma.
She steadfastly refused to take her child’s life to advance her own health and last November gave birth to her son Oscar.
But the selfless act cost her her own life and the 27 year-old woman died this week with her partner, Daniel Smajdor at her bedside. The grief he felt was a contrast to the wonderful life they thought they would lead when Radosz left Poland to live with him in Scotland.
A year before the move, Radosz was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma when a mole on her arm was discovered and later removed. But, during the pregnancy, spots returned to her arm and parts of her neck.
Doctors at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary said the cancer had returned.
Radosz ultimately gave birth to Oscar prematurely at 36 weeks into pregnancy, waiting as long as she could to give him the best chance of life but ending the pregnancy as quickly as she could to begin receiving the cancer treatments.
Despite the chemotherapy, the cancer had spread to her lungs and a brain tumor was developing.
Told that conventional treatment would give her only a 10 percent chance of surviving, she chose a pioneering gene therapy at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital to give her more time with Daniel and Oscar.
"I’ll move heaven and earth to get more time with my precious baby. I could have a year, maybe six months or even less, but I’ll do anything to live to be a mother to my baby," the Scotsman newspaper quoted her as saying at the time.
Her story touch the hearts of people in her native Poland as media accounts of her tale spread and officials at the hospital agreed to take her after part of the funds needed were raised on her behalf.
However, last week, just days before she was slated to begin the therapy, she became ill during a visit with relatives in Poland. She went to the hospital and entered a coma and never recovered.
Wayne Martin, their neighbor and friend in Aberdeen, talked with the Scotsman about the ordeal.
"Daniel has been really upset but is trying to pull himself together for the sake of their son. Everyone is devastated," he said.
Martin added, "Daniel said he’s now trying to put his life back together, but it’s going to be hard for him. This is not the ending any of us wanted."
