'I want to give back': London doctor who fought rare cancer three times returns to work
A doctor who fought off a rare and aggressive form of cancer three times has returned to work at an east London hospital.
Mel Oliver, 25, was first diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in 2011.
Just 145 people in the UK are diagnosed with osteosarcoma every year, according to the Bone Cancer Research Trust. It can affect any bone in the body but is most commonly found in the arms or legs.
Ms Oliver's treatment involved seven months of intensive chemotherapy, followed by surgery to replace her thigh bone and knee joint with a metal prosthesis.
She told the Standard: "Like many bone cancer patients, I faced the insurmountable task of going back to school, which for me was fitting into an all-girls school with no shared memories, no hair, and seemingly ever-changing friendship groups.
"But I powered through. My hair got longer, and I was eventually able to walk unaided. Somehow, I also managed to catch-up on all the schoolwork I had missed."
Ms Oliver's experience of NHS care inspired her to train as a doctor to help "give back" to the health service that saved her life.
But in her first year of medical school, Ms Oliver was diagnosed with a recurrence of osteosarcoma in her leg and another tumour was discovered around her metal implant.
Further treatment involved a different chemotherapy regime, followed by the amputation of half of her left leg.
Reflecting on her second diagnosis, Ms Oliver said: “I hardly had the energy to sit up back then, let alone learn how to use a prosthetic leg.
“I made the decision early on that I would try and complete the academic year at the same time as everybody else – I missed my friends and my old life, and so I desperately wanted things to return to ‘normal’.”
Despite further treatment, the cancer returned again, this time to her lungs. After two rounds of surgery, her scans came back all-clear.
Six years later, Ms Oliver has graduated medical school and is now working as a junior doctor at a hospital in East London.
She said: “I had no idea that I would be able to pass my exams, learn to walk again, or work full-time as a junior doctor, until I tried.
"I've been cancer free since 2020 and I have a little cat, a lovely partner and I live in London. Overall I'm really loving life."
Ms Oliver is the face of the Bone Cancer Research Trust’s Bone Cancer Awareness Week campaign, which began last month.
