A mother-of-three from Western Australia who thought her knee pain was a CrossFit injury has revealed she lost her leg after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Bec Macnamara, 36, from Baldivis, began experiencing pain in her left knee while training for a competition last November.
She consulted a physiotherapist, who initially treated it as a knee injury. However, the pain worsened, and an MRI in April revealed a 20cm cancerous lesion in her left femur. She was diagnosed with histiocytic sarcoma, a rare and aggressive blood and bone cancer that had spread to the soft tissue and muscles.
Doctors offered various treatment options, including a partial leg removal. Macnamara opted for a full amputation to start chemotherapy quickly and improve her survival chances. However, hours before surgery, doctors decided to try chemotherapy first to shrink the tumour.
The day after her first chemo session, her femur snapped while she repositioned in bed. 'I just heard this big crack and felt this humongous amount of pain,' she said. The fracture forced an emergency amputation of her entire femur from the hip socket, known as a hip disarticulation.
Macnamara still has five rounds of chemotherapy ahead, each 21 days apart. She remains positive but is concerned about the limited treatment options for rare cancers in Australia. 'I'm definitely trying to stay positive... but that's definitely floating around in the back of my mind,' she said.
