About me…

I am a 19 year old student studying a level 3 sport diploma at Truro College. At the young age of 12 I was suffering a lot with my leg when playing rugby. This lead to several doctors/physio appointments of them saying “it’s just growing pains” and gave me physio exercises to do – little did I know it was a bit worse than that. By the end of the 2012/13 season my leg was getting to a stage where it just couldn’t take much more, and that’s when a specialist physio from Liskeard came to see me. She noticed straight away that something wasn’t right and was sent for a x-ray followed by a hospital appointment for the results where it was found I had an aneurysmal bone cyst in my right leg covering from the bottom of my hip to the top of my knee. So throughout this time my femur had slowly been cracking and breaking away due to to the weight of the cyst. I was admitted to Birmingham Hospital where I receive a biopsy on the cyst. Little did I or any doctors know that throughout the surgery they actually broke my femur causing tremendous pain when trying to walk, climb stairs or even shift my body.

Time went by and of course being young, my body kept growing, except my right leg. At the time this left around 4 cm difference in my right leg to my left. This left me struggling to walk and caused a lot of pain throughout my hips and back. I was travelling to Birmingham Hospital every 3 months for follow up for over 2 years. After being told I’d never play rugby again I returned for one game in September 2014 after spending 2 years out and 18 months on crutches. That one game was a bit of a teaser though as I went in for another surgery at Bristol Hospital on my left knee. They drilled through my growth plate to stop the leg growing in the hope my legs would end up the same length. This surgery unfortunately done nothing for me as by the age of 15 I had stopped growing.

I then went back up to Bristol where I was offered the Limb lengthening surgery which would take me out for another 2 years. At this stage of my life missing most of my school life and not being able to be out with friends or just normal teenage things, as well as the travelling to Bristol/Birmingham every couple of weeks for over 3 years. My Mum and I decided it was best for me to take the chance and not go through with the surgery and just hope through luck my leg decides to grow. Still till this day I’m not sure if this was the right decision but I lean more to yes than no.

I then went on to play for my County – Cornwall at u15’s, my home club – Launceston alongside Exeter Chiefs Academy in my return to rugby. I done this up till the age of 18 where at that time the rest of my body decided to start breaking down due to the extras they had to do due to being dominant on one side of my body. Throughout this time I’ve been playing a lot of rugby when I could at my beloved club Launceston (Cornish All Blacks). After a fine season with Cornwall u20’s helping them to the final at Twickenham I moved onto first team rugby there, where I still play till this day alongside Cornwall and Truro College.

After a pre-season session with Launceston I came home and my knees were in so much pain that I couldn’t even drive home. I had tendinitis in both my knees and my right ankle. This was when my Mum decided it’s time to do this surgery and I agreed. After contacting the surgeons and going up to Bristol for a talk and remeasuring my leg to find its nearer 5 cm shorter than my left now – my surgery is booked for April 29th 2019.

This blog is for me to look back on and also for other people possibly deciding to go through the surgery too. Oh and nosey people who just want to know what’s up.

I will keep this blog updated on my progress of the next 2 years of my life and my return to rugby.. x

(Video of the surgery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GukL80YEVjk&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1JXmkyzeagOFqdOjEa6INLeneluqkTH6WZbdpNRoo0xhISiEgUZUpW-jk)