Terminal cancer diagnosis sparks young family's trip of memories and love
"Your world falls apart, you're terrified," Kate said.
She had previously been diagnosed with breast cancer twice, but this time it had spread to her spine, fracturing the C5 vertebra in her neck.
Kate was flown from Darwin to Brisbane for immediate surgery on her neck and gave birth to her daughter a week later.
"She came at 35 weeks, perfectly healthy, little bundle of joy, small but perfect," the proud mum said.
"No effects from the treatment, the surgeries or anything that we'd been through."
Kate, now 40, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 after she discovered abnormalities while breastfeeding her first baby, a son who is now eight.
She had a mastectomy on her left breast and was given ongoing medication, which she came off in 2021 so she and her husband Kriss Hardman could expand their family.
In 2023, when she was pregnant with her third child, the cancer returned in her right breast.
"I was 23 weeks pregnant when I was diagnosed for the second time with breast cancer, but it was bilateral … so I had a mastectomy on the right [breast]," Kate said.
At 28 weeks, she began chemotherapy.
"I started my chemotherapy and then I started to get a sore neck … it got increasingly worse … I was having spasms in it."
A CT scan revealed the cancer had spread to her neck and was now incurable.
"You kind of hit rock bottom, it's just devastating … your world gets turned upside down," Kate said.
Her husband described the prognosis as overwhelming.
"Everything is on your brain, a million miles an hour," he said.
But after the initial shock, the couple decided it was time to shift their perspective and make the most of their time together.
The Hardmans have created a list of everything they want to experience together as a family, while they still can.
"Don't wait to live your life," Ms Hardman said.
Along with their kids — their son, and their daughters, aged three and one — they packed their lives into a caravan almost two months ago and hit the road.
The family plans to travel around Australia for 18 months, to create memories and to raise awareness about breast and prostate cancer, which Kriss has been successfully treated for.
"My oncologist gave me a three-month supply of chemotherapy tablets," Kate said.
"How it works is every three months, I have to give them notes of where I'm going, and I get my referral sent to that hospital.
"I also have to do monthly blood tests, which get sent back to my oncologist in Darwin."
Kate says that while she does suffer some side effects from the medication, they are manageable and don't limit her daily life.
Raising awareness is also a personal mission for Kriss, 36, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020.
"I was lucky, I had some surgery and caught it really, really early," he said.
"I don't think I would have caught it as early had I not had a wife who had breast cancer.
"I would have put it off. I would have been one of those blokes that said, 'I'll go next week, next month', and then by the time you put it off and don't go, maybe it's too late."
The Hardmans are urging people to have regular check-ups with their GPs.
"It can save your life. It saved mine. If I had left it, I might not be here," Kriss said.
Kate said cancer could impact anyone.
And they still have plenty of goals to tick off.
"We've still got countries and places written down in her little book somewhere that says I want to go and see this, do this, I want to experience this," Kriss said.
"That's what I want to achieve while she is here … I want to tick off as many of these places as we can."
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