A woman faces constant agony after an operation left her with painful swelling that makes her arm and breast rock solid.
Helena Staniszewska, a Polish woman living in Bootle, Merseyside, has a debilitating and incurable condition called lymphedema, which causes swelling of the body tissue and searing pain.
The "uncontrollable" swell has made her arm puff out a "couple of centimetres", and prevents her from using her right hand for simple tasks, like cooking or washing.
Helena found a lump on her breast in July 2020 and was admitted to Aintree Hospital, where they diagnosed her with cancer and removed the tumour.
But, in April this year, Helena was hit with the terrible news that the cancer had returned, spread to her right arm, and that she needed extensive surgery to extract 15 of her lymph nodes.
During her recovery from the operation, Helena's arms and fingers started expanding and she was soon unable to move them at all.
Her arm and breast became "rock solid" and accompanied with a pain "you can't describe", her friend told the Liverpool Echo.
Translating on Helena's behalf, friend Bartosz Frankowski, 17, said: "The pain that she's got in her arm, she says you can't describe it.
"Her arm is a couple of centimetres wider and bigger than it was before it started and the same with her breast - it's solid.
"She can't move her arm and fingers so cooking, washing, or do anything really with her right arm - and she's right handed - she has to try and do it from her left."
"Her breast is getting bigger and more solid and it's also painful."
Helena still needs to undergo chemotherapy to treat the cancer, which was put on hold after her mum fell ill and she flew to Poland to look after her.
She started receiving treatment for the lymphedema in April which involved having the fluid drained from her arm once a week.
But things soon went from bad to worse, when her arm and fingers started swelling "uncontrollably" to the point that they felt "like they were going to burst."
Helena can no longer have the fluid drained in her arm because it's moved to a place that doctors can't operate on and she's been told is could continue to grow in size.
With limited other treatment available to her on the NHS, other than painkillers and a compression garment, Helena is now seeking treatment privately.
She is hoping to raise enough money to have a lymph node transplant at the Spire Manchester Hospital.
Bartosz said: "Right now she feels useless and she's in so much pain she can't sleep at night.
"She can't move a finger, she can't do anything with that arm and to try and do the normal things that she likes doing, she can't because that arm won't move.
"All she really wants right now is to finally stop that pain and the only way to do that is to raise the funds for that private operation."
To visit Helena's Go Fund Me page click here.
