Bodybuilder given just 12 months to live after 'bumping her ankle at the gym'
A bodybuilder claims she has 12 months to live after discovering a cyst on her ankle.
Nikki Jenkins, 39, from North West England, told the Liverpool Echo she first went to hospital in January after noticing the growth.
She described it like a “second ankle bone” and The Mirror reports she discovered the lump after banging her ankle at the gym.
Ms Jenkins wrote on a GoFundMe page in November she’s been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer “which spread from a rare form of soft tissue sarcoma on my ankle called Plemomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma”.
This was after visiting another doctor in May.
“The diagnosis is that it is incurable and the NHS (National Health Service) have advised that without treatment I will have a maximum of 12 months to live,” she wrote.
“Being a professional athlete means I have been in complete health all round for my whole life. I eat well, train consistently, don't use sunbeds and my family doesn't have a history of cancer.
“This is of course, a situation I never expected myself to be in.”
The bodybuilder underwent an operation to remove the growth in September, including the removal of skin from her thigh to be used as a graft on a hole on her ankle.
Unfortunately, the cancer returned and spread to her lungs. On November 5, she was told she had 12 months to live unless she underwent treatment.
"It's like a movie, it doesn't feel real, it doesn't feel like it's happening to me,” she told The Echo.
"How is this happening, I've got no symptoms. If I hadn't had to go to the doctors for check ups because of the tumour in my ankle I would have been completely unaware.”
Her family is hoping to raise more than $A96,000 for her treatment.
They are also hoping anyone with Plemomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma contacts them so they can find out more about potential treatments.
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