A young woman has recalled the ‘shock’ of needing to have her leg amputated after finding out her doctor’s diagnosis of ‘housemaid’s knee’ was actually a rare form of cancer.
Jade Crabtree was 19 when a GP said the swelling in her leg was likely the repetitive strain injury type named after women kneeling down to clean.
But she thought the diagnosis was strange as she was a desk-based worker, and was persistent in her belief that it was more serious.
‘It took six or seven visits to the GP before they took me seriously and realised it was a rare form of bone cancer found in teenagers,’ Jade said.
‘I was already worried something was really wrong, but when you hear it and it’s real, it is a shock.’
Ms Crabtree, now 23, recalls being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer which mostly affects children and young adults under 20. Symptoms include a pain which gets worse over time and swelling or redness.
Jade went through two rounds of chemotherapy before needing to have her leg amputated to stop the cancer spreading further. She has not named the GP practice that misdiagnosed her and has not implicated any wrongdoing.
The NHS states that it is often possible to reconstruct or replace the cancerous bone that has been removed, but amputation is sometimes necessary.
‘To come to terms with the fact I was going to be disabled for the rest of my life was, and still is, hard to believe,’ said Jade, who now wears a prosthetic leg.
She is now three years clear of cancer, having been treated at Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry – one of the UK’s five bone sarcoma specialist centres.
Jade has expressed her thanks to the Bone Cancer Research Trust for supporting her through the process. She is now hoping to organise charity events to raise awareness for bone cancer.
She told reporters that she is now living ‘as normally as possible’ with boyfriend Marcus in Liverpool, and is working for company Bulky Bob’s to provide reused furniture to those in poverty.
Additionally, she helped to organise the Bone Cancer Ball which raised £130,000 in just one night to help support families facing a diagnosis.
‘The best way to face it is by staying positive – which isn’t always easy, because it will get better and life will get easier,’ she added.
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