Recipient stories give hope
Jolinda Botha
A master’s student in consumer science at North-West University, Jolinda Botha was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in 2013. She underwent chemotherapy and a bone graft to treat the tumour in her right forearm.
“I was clean for a year, and then the cancer returned last year,” she said. “So in May last year I had a second bone graft, then more chemotherapy and radiation.”
The graft entails removing the diseased piece of bone from her arm and replacing it with healthy bone tissue from a donor. Without this treatment option, she could easily have lost her arm. Often Ewing’s sarcoma will spread to the lungs.
She struggled to keep up with her studies while undergoing treatment, but, she says, it was also the work that kept her going. Making it to master’s level — and working as a part-time lecturer — is no mean feat for a young woman who missed weeks of classes to undergo chemotherapy.
The experience of receiving bone tissue from someone else was an interesting one, she says.
“It was very strange for me, but so cool. I heard that I received bone from a man, and that was really cool for me.”
After her two operations and a great deal of physiotherapy, Botha says that her arm movement is only slightly limited.
“After the first surgery I struggled a bit with small motor movements, and during the second they had to remove one of my muscles, which affects my thumb movement. But it just means having to relearn some things.”
Ryno du Preez
Preez was living in England on a gap year when he began experiencing severe shoulder pain; he thought it was an old sports injury that was causing problems.
After six months he returned to Pretoria, where he was fortunate enough to be covered by his mother’s medical aid. Five months of chemotherapy later, he underwent transplant surgery.
“The tumour was in the shoulder joint, so they removed the entire left humerus,” he explained. “They cut it off right above the elbow and implanted the new donor bone. It was about 30 cm of bone.”
Following two more months of chemotherapy, Du Preez was in remission and he has remained so ever since.
Although he didn’t have pain, his shoulder remained unstable. At age 22, while studying at Wellington in the Western Cape, he visited a specialist who suggested fusing parts of the bone. Initially the surgery was a success, and Du Preez had much more movement in his shoulder — but three months later infection set in.
After three more months, he returned to Pretoria, where his doctor “had to do the whole thing all over again”, he admits ruefully.
A decade later, he is still cancer-free.
Yvonne Milan
In January 2010, the Durbanite Yvonne Milan was diagnosed with osteoblastic osteosarcoma in her right tibia. She sought several doctors’ opinions, but the conclusion was the same: Her leg would have to be amputated and she was due to start chemotherapy in March 2010.
Then her oncologist asked if she wanted to try “limb saving” or “limb sparing” surgery.
“Well, my leg was going to be chopped off, so I agreed,” Milan said.
During li mb sparing surgery, an oncological orthopaedic surgeon removes the cancerous tissue and replaces the diseased bone with a prosthesis or bone graft. After her surgery, Milan was medically boarded, ending her 35 years of employment at a financial institution.
“I was told that I would not be able to walk again and would be confined to a wheelchair. But now I do have the use of my leg and can walk and have more time to concentrate on my church work. My life is 99% back to normal.”
Now 59 years old, Milan is able to spend time with her retired husband, her two adult daughters and her young grandsons — both of whom were born after her successful surgery.
Her plea is for members of the public to consider becoming donors. “If I did not have the option to have such an operation, I would have been wheelchair-bound,” she said. “My self-esteem has been restored.”