A fitness fanatic mother-of-three has revealed how she lost her left leg when she was diagnosed with cancer after mistaking her only symptom for a gym injury.
Bec Macnamara, from Baldivis in Western Australia, began feeling pain in her left knee while training for a CrossFit competition last November.
The 36-year-old told Daily Mail Australia she assumed the pain was simply caused by the intense workout she was doing at the gym and consulted her physiotherapist.
But months later, the athletic mother was diagnosed with a disease that ultimately forced her to choose which part of her leg to amputate.
“We had been working for a while on what we thought was a knee injury. I had a bit of pain in my thigh but the physio thought it was secondary as a result of the knee injury,” Macnamara said.
“But after several months… it kept getting worse. And the pain in my thigh got worse.”
Ms Macnamara was sent for an MRI scan in April this year which revealed she had a 20cm cancerous lesion on her left femur.
“It was a shock because I was expecting to see some kind of muscle strain or ligament damage or something like that as a result of my training,” he said.
Bec Macnamara (pictured with her children Pippa, Jasper and Toby) began experiencing pain in her knee while training at a CrossFit gym last November.
The 36-year-old mother of three said she assumed the pain had been caused by an intense gym workout before an MRI scan revealed she had a 20cm cancerous lesion on her femur.
“So to detect what was suspected to be cancer on that MRI was a huge shock.”
Ms Macnamara underwent a surgical biopsy in which doctors took samples from her femur as well as a bone marrow biopsy from the back of her hip.
He was diagnosed with histiocytic sarcoma, an extremely rare and aggressive form of blood and bone cancer.
Only one doctor at the State Sarcoma Service at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth had previously treated Bec’s type of cancer.
In addition, the cancer was spreading rapidly and had reached the soft tissue and muscles of the femur just weeks after the first diagnosis.
Ms Macnamara was given several treatment options, including removal and reconstruction of just the lower leg, rather than a complete amputation.
However, this option did not rule out the possibility that further operations would be needed and would entail a high risk of infection and a longer recovery time.
“That was probably the main reason I decided to go for amputation, because it was stressed to me that because (the cancer) was so aggressive in nature, it was very important for me to get chemotherapy as soon as possible,” Macnamara said.
‘For me, having three small children, I would rather lose my leg and have a better chance of survival than “The risk is essentially not surviving.”
However, just hours before the amputation, doctors changed course and decided to try to save Ms Macnamara’s leg by reducing the injury with chemotherapy.
However, things did not go as planned.
Earlier this year, Ms Macnamara (pictured with her three children, Pippa, seven, Jasper, nine, and Toby, 13) was diagnosed with histiocytic sarcoma, an extremely rare and aggressive form of blood and bone cancer.
Ms Macnamara said her femur “just snapped” when she tried to reposition herself in her hospital bed the day after her first round of chemotherapy.
“I heard a loud crack and I felt excruciating pain and, yes, I knew right away, I could see on my leg that it was broken,” he said.
‘Then plans changed again, there was no way my body could heal that fracture with all the disease there, so we ended up having to go back into surgery and do the amputation.’
Just over two weeks ago, Ms Macnamara had her entire thighbone removed from her hip socket in an operation called a hip disarticulation.
She still has five rounds of chemotherapy left, each given 21 days apart.
“I am also aware that many of these rare cancers sometimes do not respond to normal treatments,” he said.
‘Sometimes you need things like immunotherapy or medications that Medicare doesn’t cover or perhaps medications or treatments that aren’t even available in Australia.
‘So, although I’m definitely trying to stay positive and keep my fingers crossed… That’s definitely floating around in my mind.
Just over two weeks ago, Ms Macnamara had her entire thighbone removed from her hip socket in an operation called a hip disarticulation (pictured recovering in hospital).
Ms Macnamara is also hopeful that she will be able to get a prosthetic leg to give her the best chance of resuming a normal life.
Her parents have flown in from Queensland to help with cooking, cleaning and shopping while she recovers during the school holidays.
He also has the support of his CrossFit community, as the owner of his gym in Port Kennedy, Anthony Bartlett, is starting a GoFundMe.
“Bec is a very strong woman and she continues to be strong for her family every day. The future is looking a little brighter, but there are many things we need to help her with as she learns to live a little differently,” Bartlett wrote.
Ms Macnamara said her children, Pippa, seven, Jasper, nine, and Toby, 13, have been using humour to cope with their diagnosis.
‘We joke about hiding candy inside a prosthetic leg or Being able to get shoes at half price because I only need one,’ she said.
She said the idea of getting back to the gym and being with her children kept her motivated for her upcoming chemotherapy.
‘I’m trying to ‘I make this as easy as possible for them and do everything I can to make sure I can be here to see them grow,’ she said.
