After being advised by doctors to abort her baby in order to begin cancer treatment, journalist Elle Halliwell has given birth to a healthy baby boy.
Tor Felix Biasotto was born on Tuesday night, weighing 3.1-kilograms and measuring 48-centimetres, at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, news.com.au reports.
Elle was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia in May 2016, just two days before finding out she was pregnant. Despite the risks, the 31-year-old chose to keep the baby and prolong treatment.
Now, she will begin taking chemotherapy drugs almost immediately. “It will be in the next couple of days, sooner than we thought,” Elle told The Daily Telegraph. “We were going to have a bit of time before [I started] but my levels have gone up a bit so they are a bit more concerned than they were and that is why we had to have him at 36 weeks on the dot and not 37 so that I could start the treatment as soon as possible.”
The baby’s name, Tor, is of Swedish origin and means God of Thunder. Felix derives from the Latin word for lucky. “He is a strong little boy. He has survived a lot so we think it is a fitting name for him … and it is easy to spell,” Elle told The Daily Telegraph.
“Now the next challenge begins, I start my TKI [tyrosine kinase inhibitor] drugs and we don’t know how that is going to make me feel but I am feeling pretty positive and I have got a lot to be happy and healthy for,” she says.
