A mum was diagnosed with a non-curable tumour after doing a headstand.
Tracey Marsh, 51, was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma tumour in April 2019. It is from a defective gene developed from scar tissue caused by an injury.
Doctors believe the tumour, which is the size of a coke can, was caused by a headstand she did in 2016.
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Doctors found the tumour under her armpit and the size of it means Tracey had no movement in her left arm.
Tracey, from Newton-Le-Willows said: “Sarcoma tumours are so rare. People don’t know what they are looking at. People don’t know how to treat it.
“Now I'm not going to lie. I didn't think I was still going to be sitting here with a very similar-sized tumour to three years ago. I thought ‘I got this in the bag, this is so going to shrink’.”
The child minder’s tumour shrank by 1.5cm in the first year of treatment. In the last two years the tumour grew back to its original size. It is classed as non-cancerous by Sarcoma UK.
The qualified beauty therapist said: “The sarcoma specialist said I was lucky to have been referred so early to them.
“People aren’t diagnosed with sarcoma straight away and people have waited six years before they were referred.”
The main symptoms of sarcoma are a growing lump bigger than a golf ball, swelling tenderness or pain in or around the bone.
Symptoms also include stomach pain, feeling sick, loss of appetite or feeling full after eating only a small amount of food and blood in either your poo or vomit.
If you have concerns contact your GP or if you need support contact the Sarcoma UK helpline on 08088010401.
Tracey cannot have surgery to remove the tumour because the risk of it growing back somewhere else more aggressively is too serious. Tracey’s subgroup of sarcoma has a 30% mortality rate..
Tracey, who is married to husband John, must risk assess every move she makes and had to give up her hobbies as a beauty therapist and a children’s cake baker.
She said: “I'm still managing to work, I'm still managing to study, and I do find struggles same days. I've had to rip clothes off because I couldn't get out of them when was nobody in that house.
“But you know it is what it is. I'm still breathing and I still have a future for now. John took it a lot worse than me, all my family did.
“I had to make jokes about it to lighten it all up and make it like it wasn't a serious kind. John was scared, And I don't know whether it's because I couldn't change it.
“This was me; I couldn't get away from this. This is this was happening to me whether I liked it, or I didn't.
“If I fell apart, it was still going to happen. So I just thought, right let's get on, what do we do next.
“You have to grieve the person you lost before because that's never going to be you again.”
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