Following chemotherapy and limb-salvage surgery, she became a mum before a recurrence of the osteosarcoma in October 2023. Below she tells her story, and of how she has learnt to adapt to her limitations.
My hip first became sore in January 2015, but I was going through basic training for the Royal Navy, so they said I had just torn my groin. I was 17 years old at the time. This settled and only hurt when I did vigorous exercise.
In early 2019 my knee started hurting as well and the physiotherapist thought it may just be overcompensating for the sore hip.
I did lots of physiotherapy, but nothing was helping with the pain.
Finally, in November 2019, I was sent for scans. At this point, I had lost half the muscle mass around my quads (quadricep) muscles, and had developed a lump around my knee, which stopped me from straightening my leg. My leg was also giving way every day when walking.
Following the scan I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and I had MAP chemotherapy (methotrexate, doxorubicin and cisplatin) from January 2020 - October 2020 at The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow.
In the middle of my chemotherapy I had limb-salvage surgery to replace my hip, femur and knee in April 2020 at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow.
During my treatment I ended up with sepsis, pneumonia and clots in the leg, arm and heart from the blood infection in my Hickman line. I also had to have my treatment during the Covid pandemic, which was really hard.
Fast forward to July 2022. I was pregnant with my daughter and my hip started to become sore, but the doctors just put this down to the pregnancy. I gave birth to my daughter on 1st September 2022, but the pain did not go away, and I was unable to walk most days.
Finally 10 months after giving birth I had a scan, which showed I had a recurrence in my hip. I was told I would need a hindquarter amputation. I had this surgery at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Now, I go for regular check-ups every three months to ensure the bone cancer stays away.
I was pregnant with baby number two when I had the recurrence, so I had to terminate the pregnancy in order to have a PET scan to see if the cancer had spread anywhere else.
I have also received medical discharge with the navy as I am no longer deployable, so I've lost the career that I've had since 2014.
I've tried to keep my life as normal as possible. I have pram adaptations so I can push my daughter whilst using crutches, have had a lower shower tray put in so I don't need assistance to shower, and pending a driving assessment I will get an adapted car so I can then do the nursery drops independently.
I have physiotherapy at Stanford Hall, the Defence and Medical Rehabilitation Centre near Loughborough, where all military injured personnel go for physiotherapy and rehabilitation. Seeing people in worse conditions than I am, stuck in wheelchairs who have been blown up by grenades, makes me appreciate life so much more.
We have all been given another shot at life and learn to adapt to our limitations.
I was misdiagnosed for so long, since 2015, with doctors not knowing about this disease. I was only 17 years old and it was just assumed that I had torn a muscle in my groin doing too much exercise with basic training for the Royal Navy. And then taking nearly the whole year of 2019 for me to do physiotherapy when no-one knew why the physiotherapy wasn't helping my leg, why I couldn't straighten my leg, and why my leg was giving way when walking.
If people knew about this type of cancer it may help someone get diagnosed earlier, and reduce the time and suffering and chances of it spreading.
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