Woman running marathon after brain tumor diagnosis while pregnant

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    PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (WMUR) — Months after Erin McBride lost her mother to cancer, she learned she had a brain tumor. Weeks later, she found out she was pregnant with her second child.

Now, in just over a week, she will run the Boston Marathon to support the hospital that saved her and her baby’s lives.

“The floor dropped out from under me, it felt like I was replacing my mom’s body in that medical bed,” McBride said.

Months after losing her mother to a rare uterine cancer, McBride received the diagnosis that she had a brain tumor.

“They were initially saying that my brain tumor was inoperable, that there was nothing that I could do,” McBride said.

Weeks later, the McBrides found out they were expecting their second child. The prognosis looked grim.

“I’m like, no, this isn’t how our story is going to end,” said her husband, Jon McBride.

The McBrides went to Massachusetts General Hospital for a second opinion, which brought a sign of hope.

“All the doctors, they all said that it was OK for me to get to continue on with the pregnancy,” Erin McBride said.

The plan was to have their baby, then Erin McBride would have brain surgery. They pushed on, and a few months later, they held their gender reveal at her mother’s grave, discovering they were having a baby boy.

But Erin McBride’s seizures worsened, occurring every three minutes.

“I kept having seizure after seizure after seizure,” she said.

They rushed to the hospital, and the plan changed. She would undergo brain surgery while still pregnant with their son.

“They had to wake her up halfway through to re-oxygenate the fetus,” Jon McBride said.

“The second that I woke up from surgery, that was the first question I had,” Erin McBride said. “How’s the baby? And luckily, they said that he did OK.”

Doctors were able to remove 50% of the tumor, but the other half was too risky to try. Erin McBride was supposed to spend two weeks in rehab recovering from surgery, but she didn’t need it, showing strength that mirrored her mother’s.

“That’s the moment I knew my wife was tougher than I am,” Jon McBride said.

“It was rewarding to see that I was able to still do everything the way I used to be able to,” Erin McBride said.

Their son, William, was born in July and spent two weeks in the NICU. One of the moments they felt a weight come off their shoulders was when they were finally able to bring William home.

“Cameron got to hold her brother for the first time,” Erin McBride said. “And even at that point, we still had such a long road ahead of us, because I still had to go through radiation and chemotherapy to follow.”

She began the next round of treatment, making her trips to Boston about more than just a visit to the hospital, adding in a bike ride or a run to help focus on the good.

“I really don’t know how long my life’s going to be,” she said. “I might have a regular lifespan, but I may have a slightly shorter lifespan.”

The next trip to Boston will start in Hopkinton as a 26.2-mile victory lap for Mass. General Hospital for saving her and her son’s lives and to celebrate all that she’s overcome.

“I really enjoy every, every moment, as if it was my last,” Erin McBride said.

She said she doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. She has many more marathons she wants to run in the future.

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