Nicola Cockx delayed having potentially life-saving cancer treatment for fear it would harm her unborn baby.
Thirty five-year-old Nicola was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer, in 2008 but refused chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, instead opting for holistic therapy.
She was so serious about alternative therapies that she spent a year at Manchester University studying nutrition, according to her mother Patricia who is currently campaigning for further research into multiple myeloma.
Nicola then fell pregnant in 2011, giving birth to her daughter Harriet the following year. At the inquest Dr Jim Cavet, consultant haematologist at Christie Hospital in Manchester, said Nicola deferred treatment in 2010 and in 2011, when she found out she was pregnant.
After Harriet was born, Nicola had a stem cell transplant which was initially thought to be successful, according to reports.
However, after this she contracted an infection and died eight months after giving birth to her daughter Harriet.
Nicola’s husband Rudy, a 39-year-old IT consultant, told the inquest: “She liked to explore different ways to cope with it. She was very in tune with her own body and wanted to help herself as much as possible. She researched it thoroughly.
“There was very little we could in terms of treatment when she was pregnant because certain medications could hurt the baby”.
Image via Cavendish
