When Amy Haigh’s knees began to hurt, she thought nothing of it.
At 27, she had always been fit and healthy. The south Auckland woman was training for a fitness competition and in the gym five days a week.
When she finally went to the doctor, it was more out of inconvenience – the pain just wouldn’t go away, she said.
Haigh is talking about her experience to remind young people to take their health seriously.
“Its so easy for life to get in the way, and you can shrug it off, but you have to do these things for yourself,” she told Stuff.co.nz.
“It’s about being in tune with your body, and knowing what’s right and what isn’t, and getting it looked at.”
When Haigh first went to the doctor they took an X-ray, but everything looked normal.
However, the Bombay woman “just had a feeling something wasn’t right”.
A later MRI and CT confirmed there was a mass on the end of her femur.
A biopsy, where surgeons drilled into the bone to take a sample, revealed the diagnosis.
On a Thursday night in October her doctor called to tell her she had osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer.
According to the Mayo Clinic, bone cancer is very rare, making up less than 1 per cent of all cancers.
While many cancers are most likely to affect older people, osteosarcoma tends to occur mostly in teenagers and young adults.
Haigh has not yet been told what stage cancer she has. She said it was better this way.
Read Related Also: Caught on Video: Shark lands on fishing boat in New Zealand
She said the diagnosis had changed her life and many things would never be the same again.
She had hoped to undergo treatment to preserve her eggs, but had to start chemotherapy immediately.
The aggressive treatment meant her chance of having children was now unknown.
“I’ve worked with children my whole life, so it was devastating.”
She started chemotherapy at the end of October and has another five months to go, as well as an operation.
“I’m the youngest I have seen in the oncology ward by far,” she said.
In November, Haigh gave up her job.
She has spent the past 10 years working as an early childhood educator, but doctors told her she couldn’t be around the children because of her compromised immune system.
She will be left without an income for at least nine months.
Her sister has set up an online fundraiser page to help cover costs.
Picture from flooded NSW town ‘says it all’
