After a year of increasing pain and no relief from prescription painkillers, my GP referred me to the Orthopaedic clinic at our local hospital
Unfortunately they didn't think I needed to see an orthopaedic consultant and instead I was put into the 'pain management' sphere where I was treated with painkillers and acupuncture.
After a year of worsening pain, especially when resting and no sleep; I decided that maybe an X-ray or Scan would help to find the cause. As this was still not red flagged I was told that the wait may be another 6+ weeks and therefore decided to pay for a private MRI scan.
The diagnosis was a high grade 3 chondrosarcoma in the left femur which had burst through the bone the size of two golf balls on both sides.
I was then very fortunate to find Prof Tim Briggs at Royal National Orthopaedic Hosptial (RNOH) who performed the surgery to remove the femur and hip joint along with connecting muscles and tissue and replace with a prosthetic femur and hip.
A year later after a routine quarterly chest X-ray, I received the worse news imaginable, that the cancer had metastised into my right lung. Prof Briggs then referred me to the Brompton Hospital, under the expert care of Prof Jeremy Whelan and surgeon Mr George Ladas who successfully removed the two lobes in the affected lung.
I am still under surveillance every three months at both hospitals, but so far, so good as the last two X-rays have been clear of further tumours.
I continue to live a very busy and normal life and live every day to the full. I am determined that this will never beat me.
Amanda, Age 52
Married, mother of three sons
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