Mother says it is a 'miracle' she is still alive

Heidi Loughlin was discovered she had a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer after falling pregnant with her third child in 2015

A mother who was given 12 months to live in 2015 is readying for a liver transplant and says it's a "miracle" she is still alive.

Heidi Loughlin, from Portishead in North Somerset, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer while three months' pregnant 10 years ago.

Now living with stage four cancer, Ms Loughlin is waiting for a liver transplant after chemotherapy - using the drug Kadcyla - meant she developed Hepatopulmonary Syndrome (HPS).

Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol's John Darvall, she said she had "no regrets" using this form of chemotherapy as it meant she was here today.

Trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) is a cancer drug treatment used to treat HER2 positive breast cancer - an aggressive type of the disease.

A side effect of the drug can be damage to the liver, but Macmillan Cancer Support says these are usually mild and and diminish after treatment ends.

Ms Loughlin said: "It [Kadcyla] bought me so much time, and in that time so many other drugs became available so I'm so grateful to it - but the offshoot is that it's caused damage to my liver.

"If you fill your body with some kind of toxicity, there's going to be a backlash at some point.

"It's poison but brilliant poison - because if it hadn't been for that poison, I wouldn't be sat her whingeing about it," she added.

"I was told by oncology that if I survived 10 years it would be a miracle."

What is HPS?

According to the Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit academic medical centre in the US, HPS affects capillaries in your lungs so they cannot absorb oxygen that your blood carries from your liver to your lungs.

When that happens, you develop hypoxemia - low blood oxygen levels - which causes symptoms like headache, difficulty breathing, rapid heart rate and bluish skin.

Ally Louise Smith was born by C-section on 11 December 2015

Ms Loughlin said: "It's really complicated.

"It [HPS] effects my breathing and the only cure for Hepatopulmonary Syndrome, which is what I've developed, is a liver transplant - and transplants are not done to people with stage four cancer," she added.

"My hepatologist, that deals with the liver, is saying this is unchartered territory.

"Five years ago they wouldn't have given me that option, but they're willing to do it now."

'Make this time count'

The former Met police officer found out she had a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer when she was pregnant with her third child, Ally Louise Smith.

She delayed treatment to have Ally 12 weeks prematurely but Ally sadly died shortly after birth.

"My main key was to get Ally here safe and that didn't happen - she was born and then she died from an infection.

"After that I thought well, I've got a year, this is what they're saying, make this time count as much as I can.

"And suddenly it's like, oh my goodness, 10 years have gone by and I've lived this life that has been extremely fulfilled with knowing that you've got to take every moment for what it is.

"I feel very rich in that respect, very lucky".