A young mother has shared the extraordinary story of her ‘miracle’ pregnancy while facing a terminal diagnosis, in the latest episode of the Mail’s The Apple & The Tree podcast.
Fiona Hinton, 42, spoke to her father, Steven Speakman, 71, about the challenges of balancing motherhood with advanced pulmonary fibrosis.
The podcast, hosted by the Reverend Richard Coles, brings together parents and their adult children to answer questions about their shared family history.
Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive lung disease where scar tissue builds up in the lungs, making it increasingly difficult to breathe and ultimately proving fatal as the lungs lose their ability to transfer oxygen to the blood.
‘I was 35 and I had a cold that just rambled on and on’, Fiona said.
‘Doctors told me I had asthma, but it didn’t feel like asthma. Nothing would relieve this cough – I tried inhalers and various other things.
‘I was a client director, so I would go to London a lot to present at conferences. It got to this point where I would get breathless going up on stage.
Fiona Hinton, 42, spoke to her father, Steven Speakman, 71, about the challenges of balancing motherhood with advanced pulmonary fibrosis
Steven, a former teacher from Manchester, told the podcast that he has struggled to accept the devastating news
The full episode of The Apple & The Tree featuring Fiona Hinton and her father Steven Speakman is available now. Listen now
‘I would never say I was the pinnacle of athletic health – but this seemed very odd, the breathlessness kept getting worse and worse.’
Fiona revealed her symptoms reached a crisis point during a business meeting when she couldn’t catch her breath after climbing just one flight of stairs.
‘The CEO turned to me and said: “Fiona, you look really uncomfortable”, she recounted.
‘I could barely breathe in this meeting – he told me to go home and go to A&E.
‘My dad took me to the hospital, and we had to petition for the nurses to take me seriously. I remember saying: ‘I can’t go home, I can’t breathe, I can’t wait and see – I think I’m dying.’
After being transferred to a specialist treatment centre, doctors told Fiona she had pulmonary fibrosis, an ‘extremely rare’ diagnosis for her age.
Steven, a former teacher from Manchester, told the podcast that he has struggled to accept the devastating news.
He said: ‘It’s this slow and ratcheting thing to conclude that your daughter’s life is going to be limited.
‘I still hold out hope for a cure because it’s been difficult for me. I think of myself as physically robust and you’re my junior; I struggled to accept it.
‘I have come to terms with it now: we’re all limited in life – there is a beginning and an end and there’s a brevity to your life that’s hard upon us to accept.’
While coming to terms with her terminal diagnosis, Fiona ‘miraculously’ fell pregnant despite having previously struggled to conceive.
Fiona Hinton: ‘I just have to think one day at a time because the alternative is total and utter despair.’ Listen here
‘Something that lifted the mood for us all was the arrival of Harry’, she said.
‘I have a two-year-old and he came about quite miraculously after the diagnosis. My husband and I had IVF for several years and had no success. We decided to give up.
‘By some miracle, we fell naturally pregnant – my son arrived in 2022, and he’s been the light of lives, raising everybody’s spirits.’
Fiona broke down when candidly discussing the challenges of new motherhood while facing her own mortality.
She said: ‘I have to plan ahead all of the time now – that is tedious sometimes. I am a strong person, but it’s difficult being put in that vulnerable position all the time.
‘Disease doesn’t discriminate – it gets you wherever you are and whoever you are.
‘It’s not guaranteed I will grow old with my husband or see my son grow up – and that’s hard. Sometimes, it’s too awful to contemplate.
‘All I see is Harry’s little face and that’s a dagger to heart. Nobody loves you like your mum loves you.
‘I just have to think one day at a time because the alternative is total and utter despair.
‘I want to play a role in Harry’s life – to let him know who I was, because I won’t necessarily be there to do that forever.’
To listen to full episode, search for The Apple & The Tree, wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Thursday.
