Sarah Clarke was told her lung cancer had spread and nothing could be done to save her but now she says: “I believe it’s love and hope that got me through”
Throwing her head back with laughter as she runs around the garden with her two children, Sarah Clarke has an incredible reason to cherish every moment with them.
Because four years ago she was certain she would never live to see them grow up. Sarah, 43, had been told that the lung cancer diagnosed two years earlier had spread and that nothing could be done to save her, despite ops to remove two tumours from her brain.
And on Mother’s Day in March 2019 she was sent home to spend the last six weeks of her life with her heartbroken husband Adam â and facing the agonising task of telling children Joe, 13, and Georgina, 11, she would not be with them on her birthday in April. “I was in complete disbelief,” she says. “The life I had planned ahead of me with my family disappeared. The hardest thing was realising I wouldn’t see my kids grow up.” Sarah’s only solace was that she had prepared for this moment.
Desperate to ensure her family had lasting memories of her, she had filmed 40 poignant videos for her children to watch as they got older â on subjects as varied as puberty and sex education, to her own first kiss, her wedding day and her favourite films and music. She even planned her funeral. But then, as her days were finally running out, the unbelievable happened. She lived to see her 39th birthday â and beyond.