Jennifer Gwen is an Angel

Jennifer Gwen is the first Angel I met on the Teratoma Support Forum. Like many SCT Angels, Jennifer Gwen lost her fight against her tumour and she passed away in her mummy's tummy, this autumn, on the 11th October. Before leaving, she whispered a message in my heart.

The Rainbow Angel

Jennifer Gwen is an Angel
Who came down from above,
Nestled herself inside you
To teach you how to love.

Jennifer Gwen is an Angel
Who filled your hearts with hope
And despite all the diagnoses
Taught you how to cope.

Jennifer Gwen is an Angel
But Angels can't stay long
And she knew that the road would be difficult
So she helped you become strong

Jennifer Gwen is an Angel
As such, her stay was short.
Just enough to share with you
Those beautiful things she taught.

Jennifer Gwen is an Angel
And Angels cannot die
That is why Jennifer Gwen
Must return to the clouds on high.


My kind thoughts to Keryn and Adrian, mum and dad to their Rainbow Angel, in Australia.

SCT - Angels and Miracles

SCT is the usual abbreviation for a Sacrococcygeal Teratoma. These very rare tumeurs happen in a ratio of 1:35,000 to 1:70,000 live births.

I happen to be one of those rare specimens called an SCT Survivor. Up till October of this year I never knew that anyone else in the world had ever had one. I never dreamed I would find people who could understand the different difficulties and problems induced by it. I thought I would have to go this one all alone.

Jen's Teratoma Support site and the Teratoma Foundation forum have been such a revelation to me, and have helped me enormously over the last two months, and for once in my life I find that I can be really, truly, helpful. Expectant couples who have had their unborn baby diagnosed with an SCT or one of the other, even rarer, forms of teratoma find precious information and very caring psychological support.

I hope that my presence on the SCT Forum, still alive and kicking, almost 45 years after having gone through the same experience, albeit "from the other side", helps them maintain their hope in a situation where the initial prognostics are often very bleak.

The majority of SCT babies are born by planned premature cesarian deliveries, and undergo major surgery only hours or days after birth. Some have even been operated on 'in utero'. Some babies do not manage to overcome their tumeur. These babies become SCT Angels that leave their strength and their fighting spirit to our small, but growing community.

The strength and fighting spirit necessary for a baby born at 33 weeks, and weighing less than 2 kilos, to undergo a 9 hour surgical intervention. The miracle of life triomphing against such terrible odds.

My Angels and Miracles poems relate these magnificent Stories