Chapter 2
Unfortunately, after a happy summer, Amy began experiencing difficulties swallowing food, and felt something wasn’t right. A scan on July 30th 2013 confirmed the tumour had already started to grow again and the doctors decided treatment would be radiotherapy. She began 12 courses on August 14th, but a few weeks later we were told that it hadn’t been as successful as hoped. The problems with Amy’s tumour was the rarity, and the position. So, the consultants turned to treatment as part of clinical trials. Chemotherapy began in October 2013 which meant that year, she spent Christmas Eve and New Years Eve in Weston Park Hospital – still smiling. Just a few weeks later, we received the upsetting news that the tumour was still growing. By this...
Chapter 1
Amy was a 20 year old, second year student at Lincoln University when she suddenly started with difficulties breathing. After weeks of hospital visits and multiple medications with no improvements, the doctors put Amy’s symptoms down to a possible cyst on her thyroid and prepared to remove it, and took a biopsy to confirm. This revealed that Amy in fact had a tumour next to her windpipe, and on the 6th February 2013, she was diagnosed with lyposarcoma; a very rare cell/tissue cancer in her lower neck. Amy was transferred to Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, to prepare for an operation to remove as much of the tumour as possible. We were told the numerous risks and complications; inevitably being left with a sizeable scar, and the high risk of paralysing...