Mum with terminal breast cancer is ticking things off her ‘living list’
A mum with terminal cancer is busy ticking off her "living list" and making the most of the time she has left by trekking the Alps, crowdsurfing with Joe Wicks and adopting a little boy.
Roisin Pelan, 42, a small business owner from Preston, Lancashire, was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2014 and was given just three years to live in January 2018.
Over the course of 10 years, Pelan has had over 60 rounds of chemotherapy and taken five different types of medication as treatment for the illness.
Having defied the odds to survive her prognosis, Roisin decided to create a "living list" of everything she wanted to do before she died.
Though she has been busy ticking a number of life goals off her list, Roisin says she has still got "lots" she wants to do including camping in a treehouse, going to New York at Christmas and swimming in the sea in Bora Bora.
She is also hoping to "manifest an Oasis reunion so I can go to their gig".
"I made a 'living list' after I was diagnosed as it’s so much more fun than a bucket list," she explains.
"I've managed to tick so much stuff off already - I wrote a children's book, I trekked the Alps, the Highlands and in Yorkshire.
"I also helped to form a charity."
Roisin says she has her list pinned on the wall.
"I'm really into manifestation and things like that at the moment so I made it a vision board."
Roisin was first diagnosed with secondary breast cancer on May 26, 2014 and was told by her oncologist it was incurable.
At the time, she was pregnant with her first child, Ivy, now 10, with her and her husband, Michael, 39, an illustrator, already planning on adopting a second child.
But her oncologist couldn’t give social services clearance until he was more confident in her prognosis.
"We'd been approved to adopt before I was diagnosed," she explains.
"We were waiting to be matched, but after my cancer was confirmed, the oncologist said it wasn't going to be possible."
In May 2019, following treatment and five years after diagnosis, Roisin was transferred to a different oncologist, who was pleased with her progress, so social services were given clearance to let Roisin and Michael adopt.
"I was walking up a mountain, when social services rang," she says of the moment she learnt they had been approved for adoption.
"I couldn’t hear them properly so I ran all the way down so I could hear them say they were approving me for adoption."
The family brought six-month-old Bill home in September 2019, and having ticked off one of her life goals, Roisin continued to add to her list.
In the five years since, she has completed many more of her hopes and is particularly proud of the small business she started, Fighty Pants, a gift shop for people with cancer.
As her condition is incurable, Roisin will never be able to finish her chemotherapy, but her cancer status is "no evidence of disease", which means her illness is under control and she fully intends to complete her list, which is expanding every day.
"I wrote a children’s book - called Shiny Happy Horace," she says of her achievements.
“We’ve done a road trip to the south of France.
“But I still want to road trip around Canada and New Zealand in an RV.
“I want to take the glass train in Switzerland - and I’m trying to manifest Oasis to get back together so I can go to their reunion gig."
Roisin says as long as she continues to "thrive" she will carry on ticking goals off her list.
“It’s wonderful to still be doing so well,” she adds.
Roisin's 'living list' - things she's done
Starting a small business
Writing a children’s book
Road trip to the south of France
A 100K trek through the Highlands - led by Emma Willis for Coppafeel
Tour de Mont Blanc
Hiking through Yorkshire
Forming a charity for people with secondary breast cancer
Crowdsurfing with Joe Wicks
Roisin's 'living list' - things left to do
Swim in Bora Bora
Drive through Canada and New Zealand in an RV
Go to New York at Christmas time
Take a glass train through Switzerland
Camping in a treehouse
Watching Oasis in concert
Additional reporting SWNS.
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