She shares her story to help others feel less alone.
In August 2014 I was leaving home in Belfast to go to Dundee University and start my nursing degree. It was an exciting time and I had a bright future ahead of me.
The night before I left, I went out with friends and fell over. The next day my wrist was hurting.
The pain was intermittent and I just thought I had hurt it with the fall.
I kept icing my wrist and taking ibuprofen, which mostly kept the pain under control. I was convinced it was just a sprain.
I started my first nursing placement and was learning to empty a catheter when I felt something pop in my wrist. This was accompanied by extreme pain.
The next day I could feel a lump in my wrist.
My mother-in-law is a nurse and she could feel the lump too. She told me that I needed to go and see my GP. This took several months as I needed to register with a new GP surgery, so it wasn't until November 2014 when I finally saw a GP.
The doctor examined me but was unable to find anything. He asked me if I played lots of sports or did lots of typing, to which I replied 'no'.
Despite this, he said it could be tendonitis, gave me high dose naproxen, and sent me on my way.
This managed to cover some of the pain but my wrist continued to grow. A few days later I went to A&E, where I was told that I had a soft tissue injury and sent away again.
At this point my wrist was growing and I was in terrible pain. I knew deep down it was a tumour. I was really struggling with anxiety, and the more I struggled, the more difficult it became to see a doctor.
Things became so bad that I could not complete my placement and I left university in February 2015.
After I returned home to Belfast, I did manage to ring the out-of-hours doctor and described my symptoms. I was told it was probably a cyst and I was having severe panic attacks by this time. I knew it was something serious, but my anxiety was just too much for me to do anything about it.
In March 2015 one of my friends said she would come to the A&E department with me. When I got there, I was seen quickly, as there was obviously something wrong with my wrist. It was so swollen and heavy.
I was given an X-ray and the doctor came to tell me something was not right. My wrist was put in a cast and I was told to come back to the fracture clinic.
The next morning I arrived at the fracture clinic but was told that I was being transferred to Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast. I had a biopsy and a few days later was diagnosed with Giant Cell Tumour of the Bone.
My diagnosis meant I was unable to continue with nursing. That was difficult to hear, but the hardest thing was being told I was the only person in Northern Ireland at the time with a GCT.
This made me feel so alone.
I went straight home and luckily I was able to find a support group on Facebook. Everyone in the group was from the US, but at least I had people to talk to.
I had x-rays and MRI scans to make sure I had no metastasis (that the tumour had not spread), which it hadn't. I began treatment of Denosumab injections once a week for three months and then every month for another 15 months at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
They managed to shrink and solidify the tumour, making it easier for it to be surgically removed.
The side effects of Denosumab were a bit tough. Since it depletes your calcium and vitamin D levels, I had to supplement with eight calcium tablets a day.
The Denosumab helped shrink the tumour, which helped with the weight of it, although I was still in a lot of pain. The actual pain of the bone tumour was the worst pain I have ever felt.
After the treatment, I went back to Musgrave Park Hospital for surgery. I had the tumour and part of my radius removed (the large bone in my lower arm) and the ulna (the small bone in my lower arm) was moved over to support the arm and fix it to my wrist with pins and plates.
I initially had three monthly follow-up appointments which were moved to six monthly and then yearly until I was eventually discharged.
It is a struggle not being able to flex my wrist anymore. Sometimes I really feel the need to bend my hand, but my arm is now fixed in place, and I can't. It helps to flex my wrist though and look at it!
I have managed to learn to do a lot of things with my non-dominant hand as well, which is a cool trick.
My message to others would be don't be ashamed to ask for help, especially when trying to process the emotions that come with being diagnosed with a rare primary bone tumour. Also, join a support group if you can. The number one place I felt comfortable and supported was a support group. The Bone Cancer Research Trust website was the first place I had seen any information on my tumour, it's just so rare.
Getting my diagnosis was a very lonely and scary time, but joining online communities helped me feel less alone.
It is so important to raise awareness about the importance of early diagnosis. I hadn't even heard of a Giant Cell Tumour of the Bone before I was diagnosed. I didn't think that having a little wrist pain could turn out to be a tumour. So, I left it, longer than I should have.
Raising awareness not only informs people of possible symptoms to look out for but it also provides them with a community to lean on when they're scared.
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