MY VERY BRAVE FRIEND CAMILLA

Our brave friend Camilla needs pioneering surgery, not available on the NHS, to embed a prosthetic leg in her remaining stump following a brutal tumour. Please support us to help her walk again.

In 2020, our friend Camilla had her right leg amputated above the knee, after a tumour had been found within it. As the operation took place during the Covid pandemic, the procedure had to be conducted whilst Camilla was awake, under local anaesthetic. Now, after further surgeries to rectify, and further shorten, the remaining stump, due to complications following the surgeries, the friction of the muscles on the bone are causing severe pain and make a detachable prosthetic limb impossible. Her NHS surgeon has now said the only solution is a technique called Osseointegration where a metal limb attachment is implanted into the end of the bone of the stump and the soft tissue is built around it, but this is no longer available as an NHS procedure. She needs your help to allow her to take this final, crucial, step.

Camilla has four children, and is married to Henry. The family live in Surrey. Beyond being a loving wife and mother, Camilla hopes one day to return to working in the catering industry – she is a qualified chef. Right now, though, that’s just not a possibility.

Before she lost her leg, Camilla was sporty – really sporty. Swimming, surfing, tennis, running, cycling; you name it. It was whilst on a run with her sons, in 2018, that she first noticed something was wrong. Camilla felt a strong pain in her right leg. At first, her doctor thought it was simply tendonitis. But after two months of pain, she was referred for an x-ray, the results of which would turn her life upside down.

A large tumour was identified in the bone, just below her knee. Efforts were made to remove the 8cm x 6cm tumour, which was found to have spread into the surrounding soft tissue, without having to remove the leg. No less than three major surgeries were carried out, as a result of which Camilla was left in a straight cast in a wheelchair, reliant on her husband (who had to give up work, and therefore income) to care for her and their children.

However, after all three of these operations ultimately proved unsuccessful, it was decided that the only remaining option was to amputate. Camilla had something called Giant Cell Tumour of the bone. These tumours can turn malignant and be extremely locally aggressive, hers was.

As it was during lockdown, Camilla could not be accompanied for this fourth operation. She had to be dropped at the hospital door by her husband. Later that day, on the ward, Camilla was told that, due to the pandemic, a general anaesthetic was not possible. Terrified, Camilla therefore had to listen as the surgeons used a bone-saw to remove her leg.

Because of Covid restrictions, after only two days she was discharged home on crutches, where Camilla and her family sought to get used to her new reality. In the following weeks and months, she then began trying to learn to walk again, using a prosthetic leg. Ultimately, this process had to be stopped due to strong pain Camilla experienced in her stump.

Infection was found to have formed within it. As a result, Camilla had to have a further operation, to amputate her leg yet higher. Since then, Camilla has had to have a further three such surgeries, all reducing the length of her right leg further and further.

In all, therefore, Camilla has now had eight operations on her leg. Though she is tough (she always manages to put on a brave and cheerful face in public, and in private is a devoted wife and mother, never bemoaning her lot) this process has been, unsurprisingly, physically and mentally devastating – both for her, and for her family.

There is a solution. Her NHS consultant, whom she trusts, can perform the surgery. She will be able to return to a near normal life. But after eight surgeries over seven years, he cannot help her walk on the NHS. This pioneering surgery can only occur privately - sadly something that she and her husband simply cannot afford, given the personal and professional sacrifices that they have had to make. With your help we can help Camilla walk again and she would love to be a pioneer and campaign for this procedure to be available for others like her on the NHS.

Starting this Spring, together with Camilla’s friends and family we are starting to raise the funds through walks, events and crowdfunding activities. We are hoping to raise £140,000 to fund a tailor made prosthetic leg and the surgery needed to implant it so Camilla can walk, work, be able to play cricket with her sons again hold her little boys hand when they cross the road, something she has never experianced with him. We do hope that you are able to help.