When a couple are young, in love and planning their lives together, the day they find out they are expecting a baby can be one of the happiest days of their lives, but one local couple had no idea what lay in store for them in the weeks that followed a positive result on a pregnancy test.

20-year-old Alice Hall and 24-year-old Chris Powles have been together for almost a year, and had recently got engaged. In May, the couple found out that Alice was pregnant. While they were nervous, they were both very happy.

They booked GP appointments, scheduled scans and blood tests, but before Alice’s 12-week scan was due to take place she started getting extreme morning sickness, spotting, and other abnormal symptoms. The couple went to their doctor and pushed to have an early scan.

During the scan, it became clear that something was wrong, as the sonographer could not find a baby. Alice and Chris were told that she had probably miscarried, and a blood sample was taken, to measure Alice’s Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) levels.

She was told to go back in two days for a follow up blood test, to make sure her hCG levels dropped, which is expected after a miscarriage.

However, doctors discovered that Alice’s hCG levels were not dropping, they had doubled, and stood at 166,000.

Doctors were concerned that Alice was having an ectopic pregnancy; a complication where the embryo develops outside of the uterus. Alice was given a surgical procedure; a laparoscopy, to find out if this was the case, but medical staff were unable to find anything.

A week later, Alice was back in hospital for an Evacuation of Retained Products of Conception (ERPC). This is a procedure, carried out under general anaesthetic, to remove pregnancy tissue from the womb.

As Alice was changing into her hospital gown, she discovered she was bleeding. She went to the toilet to wash away the blood that had poured down her legs. While on the toilet, Alice passed a fleshy lump, which was about the size of an apple, but she was instructed to flush it away.

Alice was then taken into surgery for the ERPC. She was then sent home, and instructed to return a few days later for more blood tests.

After the ERPC, Alice’s hGC levels dropped slightly, but two days later, they had again risen dramatically, so she was referred to a specialist hospital in Hammersmith, London.

At Hammersmith Hospital, a scan showed that there was a large tumour growing in Alice’s womb, and she was diagnosed with complete molar pregnancy, or gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. She was told this was a very rare form of cancer.

Alice told the Gazette that the tumour had never been a baby, at the point of conception, the sperm had knocked out the nucleus of the egg, and this created the tumour.

An MRI scan revealed that there was a large blood vessel running through the tumour, so it could not be removed; there was a danger that Alice could bleed to death or need an emergency hysterectomy. After hearing this, Alice and Chris learned that the ERPC could have potentially killed her.

The couple stayed in Hammersmith Hospital for a week, where Alice received chemotherapy, but she was discharged and continued to receive the treatment at her local doctor’s surgery in Ross-on-Wye.

For a little while, everything had been going well, but then Alice went into labour. She stayed at home for 20 hours, before going into Hereford Hospital for the final ten hours of labour, and she gave birth to a fleshy, heavy, solid tumour, that was the shape of a thick sausage, approximately eight inches in length.

Since giving birth to the tumour, Alice’s hormone level has fallen dramatically, and currently stands at 23 hCG. However, she still has three cycles of chemotherapy to complete.

“I try to stay positive,” Alice told the Ross Gazette. “It’s going to be over soon, and this will be just a memory, but some days it can be hard, and you think, ‘why did this have to happen to me?’

“We have to take everyday as it comes.”

Alice and Chris live together with Alice’s parents in Ross-on-Wye. Chris’ family live in Newport, but the couple are very grateful to both their families for all their help and support.

Alice added that the charities Macmillan and Clic Sargent have been really helpful to them, in terms of knowledge, support and financial assistance.

Alice will have to attend regular check ups in the future, to make sure her hCG levels stay normal and that the cancer does not return.

Alice and Chris are sharing their story on social media and in the Ross Gazette in the hope that they will raise some awareness; if someone else, who is pregnant, encounters abnormalities, particularly before their first scan at 12 weeks, they urge them to go to their doctor and get anything they are concerned about checked out.

Alice said: “If you’re pregnant and experience anything you think is weird, please get it checked out.”

Because specialists managed to catch Alice’s complete-molar pregnancy early, her survival rate was more than 90%, but if it had gone undetected and spread to her lungs or brain, her chances of survival would have been much lower.

Alice and Chris would like to have children in the future, but Alice said that going through labour and giving birth to the tumour has completely changed her perspective. She added that they would have to wait a year after she finishes chemotherapy before trying for a baby.

Molar pregnancies are very rare, and only 1 in 1,000 pregnancies turn out to be molar, but for women who have had a molar pregnancy before, their chance of having another one is around one in 100.