Mum Kirstie’s sarcoma story of hope as she battles rare cancer

Transcript

00:00Sarcoma is known as the forgotten cancer. My journey with sarcoma started back in January

00:0623 when I was sitting on my sofa and crossed my legs over and found a lump. So I went to

00:13the GP and there was no real concern, it sort of felt a bit like a raised lymph node. Ten

00:19months later in October 23 I went to an appointment in the Ulster and was told I had sarcoma cancer.

00:27I was very lucky that Jill the sarcoma nurse was there that day and she sort of held my hand and

00:33still holds my hand through it all. Within three weeks I had that scan, I had a further MRI, the lump

00:39was behind my knee and I had surgery. So the biggest impact for me was my mobility. So I had a large

00:47portion of the back of my knee removed and it was right on the bend of my knee. So when I woke up

00:53from that surgery, the first surgery I had a full leg cast on so obviously I had to mobilise with

00:59crutches. But when I came out of hospital I was totally dependent on my husband, my mummy, my

01:06brother, their sisters, my children had to help me with everything. Following on that journey I then

01:12had to go and meet oncology and I had 30 sessions of radiotherapy. Nobody thinks cancer is going to

01:20come to their door until it does and then when it does it just creates a tornado effect on everything

01:27around you. I could not have went through that journey without the staff in the Ulster hospital.

01:33They were with me every step of the way. The support was incredible. We need to get the word out there

01:39that sarcoma is really treatable. We need to catch it early. I would really encourage people to check for

01:47lumps in their body. Always get it checked out. And that is my message. Never be afraid to come

01:53forward. Never be afraid to ask the question, could this be sarcoma?