Frankie Wedgewood knew she wasn’t pregnant because she was on the pill – and her fiance had been away with the Army for three months (Picture: PA/File)

A young mother who was told she was pregnant after suffering with stomach pains discovered she actually had cancer.

Frankie Wedgewood knew she couldn’t be expecting because she was on the pill – and her fiance Will Fisher had been away with the Army for three months.

Their baby Freddy was six months old and she knew what it felt like to be three months pregnant.

‘I was gobsmacked – I knew what the doctor said was impossible,’ said the 22-year-old nursery nurse from Norton, North Yorkshire.


‘And obviously I hadn’t slept with anyone while Will was away.’

Ms Wedgewood, who has been with her 25-year-old fiance for four years, said: ‘I had to phone Will and tell him. He naturally assumed I’d cheated. He was also really concerned about me. I kept telling him the doctors were wrong.’



Doctors told Ms Wedgewood that she had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, where the baby grows outside the womb. But tests revealed this wasn’t the case and nothing showed up on scans.

She was transferred to a specialist cancer unit in Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield where it was revealed she had an aggressive form of cancer that mimics pregnancy.

The tumours caused by choriocarcinoma produce high levels of the pregnancy hormone HCG. A pregnancy test will show as positive even if the woman is not pregnant, which confused doctors at Malton Community Hospital.

After a year of chemotherapy, she is in remission and has been told Freddy, now 18 months, could have brothers or sisters.

She said: ‘I’ve now completed my treatment and I’m being closely monitored and will return to Weston Park Hospital soon for check-ups. The nurses are great and if I have any problems or queries I know I can contact them.

‘I am now looking forward to the future and walking down the aisle this summer where I will be thinking of all the amazing staff that helped to get me there.’