My ‘new mum’ exhaustion turned out to be incurable cancer

What Leeanne thought was normal new-parent exhaustion turned out to be incurable bowel cancer (Picture: Leeanne Grassnick/SWNS)

Leeanne Grassnick thought she was dealing with the sort of exhaustion that comes with becoming a new parent. She’d given birth to her son in December 2021 before catching Covid-19 just three days later. The tiredness that followed made her feel miserable but she wasn’t overly alarmed.

The 42 year-old from South West London had also begun losing weight pretty rapidly and was picking up constant infections.

Still, she assumed it was all connected to recovering from childbirth while trying to survive on barely any sleep, which is – of course – hardly unusual for a new...