Tracey Ferrin’s husband, Nick, vowed to stick with her through sickness and in health. 

But, in September 2001, after a year of marriage, the then 18-year-old was diagnosed with osteosarcoma — an extremely rare bone cancer — in her right leg. And he hit the road. 

“The day he left me, I was in my bedroom, and I had just thrown up from the chemo,” Ferrin told The Post.

Now 38, Ferrin, a fitness instructor, sees her private story reflected in the headlines. On Monday, St. Louis Cardinals player Albert Pujols, 42, announced his forthcoming divorce from wife of two decades, Deidre — who underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor Saturday.

“I’ve been asked a lot of questions over the past few days regarding what’s been going on at home and sadly, after 22 years of marriage, I have made the decision to file for divorce from my wife, Deidre,” said the athlete in a statement. He and Deidre share five children. 

“As a devout Christian, this is an outcome that I never wanted to see happen,” continued Pujols, who also acknowledged that his breakup coincides with baseball season’s opening day, April 7. “For many long days and nights, I prayed, asking the Lord for His guidance.” (Deidre did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.)

For Ferrin, the MLB player’s announcement brought back memories of her husband’s abandonment.

It was just days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when her sickness became more than Nick, then 20, could bear. “I think seeing me throw up is what triggered him,” recalled Ferrin, who lives in Houston, Texas. She chose not to disclose Nick’s last name for privacy reasons.

“I don’t remember exactly what he said to me,” she admitted of her ex, who died by suicide in 2016, “but he called a friend to come and pick him up, packed a bag and left.“

And to make matters worse, at the time of her diagnosis and Nick’s abrupt departure, she was six months pregnant with their second daughter. Their first child, Elly, was only 10 months old. 

“I was totally heartbroken, crying and I begged him to stay, but he didn’t,” said Ferrin, who, during her third trimester, began treatment at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

“While I was going through chemo, doctors told me that it’s much more common for men to leave when a woman is sick than it is for a woman leaving when her husband gets sick,” she said. 

Beyond the Pujols, there are other high-profile examples: former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, 68, from North Carolina, notoriously confessed to engaging in an extramarital affair while his since-deceased wife, Elizabeth Edwards, grappled with breast cancer, before she died in 2010. They were married for 33 years.

Then there’s music magnate David Foster, 72, whose former wife and ex “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Yolanda Hadid, 58, struggled with a Lyme disease diagnosis. In her 2015 memoir, “Believe Me: My Battle With the Invisibility of Lyme Disease,” the veteran supermodel described how the insomnia, joint pain and exhaustion brought on from her disorder rendered Foster — who later married “American Idol” alum Katharine McPhee, 38, in 2019 — “unhappy” in their union.

But, “if he didn’t leave the marriage I would not be where I am today,” she wrote.

Ferrin — who ultimately gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Fayth, now 20, and whose cancer has been in remission for the past two decades — said the same is true for her.

“I always say, ‘If a man can’t handle you at your worst, he doesn’t [deserve to] get you at your best,’ ” said Ferrin, adding that she holds no ill-will towards her late ex. “And if cancer [wasn’t the thing that caused Nick to leave], something else would have drove him away.”

After divorcing Nick in 2003, she went on to marry her current husband, Ryan, with whom she shares sons Bubba, 17, and Noah, 13. And she authored her self-help tome “Up Struggle: Embrace the Struggle, Become Stronger, Live Happier,” in 2020. 

“My experiences have made me stronger. I’ve learned empathy and compassion for others,” Ferrin told The Post. “I’m not grateful for cancer, but I’m grateful for the life lessons it taught me, and how the ordeal made me a better woman.”