FORMER MODEL’S CANCER AGONY
Jacqui aims to raise awareness
A former model who has appeared on the world’s most famous catwalks almost lost her leg during cancer surgery.
Jacqui Napier, formerly McCloy, has been battling against a rare form of the disease called osteosarcoma since her pregnancy with her first child.
Her modelling career, from the age of 13 till 23, saw her work with top agencies in New York, Tokyo and Miami and appear in fashion magazines such as Elle.
The brave mum, now 44, saw her knee and leg balloon over six months before medics revealed her devastating diagnosis just four days after giving birth to her son Lewis, now two years old.
Jacqui, from Ayr, has also had part of her lung removed as a result of the disease which affects the bone, soft tissue and ligaments.
The former Chestnuts Hotel waitress has now spoken out about her courageous fight which devastated her early days of motherhood as painstaking surgery and treatment left her being unable to lift her boy.
At times Jacqui felt “inadequate” as a mother as she watched from the sidelines as her husband of eight years, Gareth Napier, 47, and supportive parents, John McCloy, 72, and Sheila, 72, and sister Louise Lachlan, 45, took over.
Now the spirited mum wants to raise awareness of the under-researched cancer which is more common in children and often misdiagnosed as ‘growing pains’ in adolescents after several trips to her GP failed to diagnosis the illness.
She told the Post: “When I was pregnant in 2018, I had gone to the doctors with a pain in my knee. It was sore to stand and put any weight on it.
“The first doctor I saw assumed it was pregnancy related and that it would go away. I was sent home with 100 paracetamol.
“Second time I saw a doctor, they thought it was ligament damage.
My knee was huge, it was double the size, it was red and I knew something wasn’t right.
“The pain wouldn’t go away with paracetamol and it got worse at night, there was so much swelling and it was hot to touch.
“I think because of the pregnancy a lot of symptoms were masked, but this went on for six months during my pregnancy.”
Jacqui was rushed to hospital just four days after her son was born in March 2019, where scans revealed the cancer.
She said: “They told me I had cancer. I was thinking it was a torn ligament, I had never heard of osteosarcoma before, it was such a devastating shock.”
Jacqui believes doctors should have pushed for a scan quicker.
She said: “Even one x-ray would have shown that something wasn’t right. I had a horrible feeling in my gut that it was more sinister than ligament damage.”
Surgery has left metal plates in her knee and shin after top surgeons were able to save her leg.
Jacqui said: “When they took me into surgery, I was going for an amputation.
“But they managed to get the whole bone out, from mid thigh to mid shin.
“They managed to save my leg to allow me to walk – I had metal plates put in my knee and shin.”
Jacqui has had to endure treatment which has left her with life-changing physical and mental scars, with the most severe being her kidneys failing.
This year she required surgery on her lungs after being 14 months cancer-free and now faces an anxious wait to see if the cancer can be kept at bay.
Jacqui said: “Sarcoma is so underresearched the treatment options haven’t changed in 40 years.
“The side effects to the chemotherapy are so harsh – I now have an under-active thyroid, I have had to go through the menopause as the cancer shut down my ovaries, my vision was impaired.
“I have stage three kidney disease, I am at high risk of kidney failure and I have to manage this.
“I have six crushed discs in my back due to the drugs, steroids and chemotherapy which crumbled my bones.
“I also have nerve damage in my hands and feet. The treatment has been so brutal that I couldn’t lift my baby.
“I’ve never been able to lift my baby boy, I can’t look after him on my own.”
Throughout her fight with cancer, Jacqui benefitted from several charities who were a rock of support for her.
She received life-saving treatment at the Beatson and was backed by a charity Mummy’s Star who guide mums who are going through cancer during or after pregnancy. Supportive pals rallied round to raise money for the Beatson where Jacqui received the bulk of her treatment, as she faces further scans to make sure the cancer doesn’t spread elsewhere.
Workers at the Chestnuts and Jacqui’s sister Louise all took part in a 10k walk which passed by her house as she prepared for major lung surgery the following day. They charity walkers raised £4,700 for the centre which Jacqui has praised as a “positive and inspiring place”.
Jacqui added: “The support has been incredible from everyone. It’s about survival for me now, everyday is a survival day, I have a baby at home –I wanted him for so long. No one knows what will be next, I just want to be here to see my son grow up and to bounce back from this.”
Find out more about Mummy’s Star at https://www.mummysstar.org/ and donate to the Beatson at https://www.beatsoncancercharity.org/donate/