Christmas', her wife, Julia Lemigova, took up boxing. 'I'm literally punching my fears aside; punching the panic out of myself and getting on with today,' she says. 'I've realised since what's happened to Martina that today is all you have.
You never know what tomorrow may bring. 'Indeed. Martina and Julia — who has two daughters Victoria, 21, and Emma, 17, from two previous relationships — were 'a phone call away' from adopting their own much-wanted child, when the phone rang at their Miami home to deliver the devastating news that a swelling on Martina's neck was cancerous.
A few weeks later, a second unrelated tumour was discovered in Martina's breast. The adoption plans are now on hold. 'I'd just come home and was getting out of the car when Martina came out of the house to tell me [about the tumour on her breast],' says Julia. 'I ran to her in silence.
Grabbed her. Squeezed her. She was like 'Why is this happening to me?' and crying. 'I knew my eyes were getting wet, but she didn't see my tears.
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