A woman who had to have half her hip removed due to a rare bone cancer says she is “grateful” she decided to go to A&E when she did.

Megan Skalska, from Sittingbourne, first started feeling pain in her hip last October, and then noticed a lump the following month.

She said: “Sometimes I would be fine and sometimes the pain would be really intense – I kind of just assumed that it's just from walking too much at first.

“Then I noticed the lump on the left side of my hip, and at first I just thought it would be swelling, but decided it would be best to get it checked.”

She went to A&E at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, where she had an X-ray.

But five hours after she left the hospital, she received a phone call saying she needed to come back for more tests.

She said: “The first question they asked me was: ‘Do you have any cancer in the family?’.

“That’s when I knew that something wasn't right, especially because they got back to me so quickly.

“I had my MRI, my CT scan, another X-ray, loads of blood tests, and originally they said it was a benign tumour, which put my mind at ease.

“But then I found out that they suspected it had a malignant transformation.”

Megan, who was 22 at the time, went for a consultation at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore.

She was told that doctors suspected the tumour was cancerous, but that they wouldn’t know until a biopsy was done.

She underwent surgery at the hospital on January 28, which ended up lasting six hours.

“They had to make a custom tool to remove the tumour,” she explained.

“At first, I was supposed to have a small operation, which would have only had a four-week-long recovery.

“But on the day of my operation, I found out that they just kind of went in and removed everything as they probably suspected the cancer was already there.

“The tumour was just growing so quickly at that point”.

Megan, who is now 23, spent three weeks recovering at the hospital, where she had to relearn how to walk.

She explained: “It was really difficult, but I received a lot of support and everyone there was really amazing and took care of me.

“I couldn't feel anything from the waist down for the first week, as I was on an epidural, which was very claustrophobic and weird. I've never experienced anything like it.

“At around a two-week mark, I first learned how to just sit up, and I probably took my first step with a zimmer around three weeks after.”

She was in a wheelchair for around six weeks post-surgery and still has to use a crutch to walk long distances.

She is currently living back with her parents while she recovers, and will never be able to run again or take part in any high-impact activity.

“I will be able to gain my walking pattern back to normal,” she said. “It's just a long, long journey”.

“Before my diagnosis, I loved travelling. I really wanted to go to Australia, but I'm now getting checked every three months for the next five years so I can't really be outside of the UK.

“I've gone from having my aspirations to now kind of feeling tied down.

“But at the end of the day, I'm still here. And I'm still able to do that in the long run. And that's something I’ve just got to appreciate.”

Megan, who has previously lived in Dartford and Kings Hill, received her biopsy results in February and found out the tumour was Stage 1 chondrosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer.

It most often occurs in adults aged between 40 and 75.

She said: “Luckily, it was only Stage 1 and I was safe to go home, and I didn't need any further treatment.

“I was really lucky that I went to A&E when I did because when it gets to Stage 2, often it's amputation.

“So if I left it, I could have lost my leg or even my life.

“I’m just really, really glad that I'm still here and that the operation went well.”

She says that when she was first diagnosed, she felt “numb” but then “survivor mode kicked in”, adding: “I thought that my mental health would really suffer throughout the cancer diagnosis.

“But oddly, I think the survivor mode just kicked in, and I persevered.

“I just thought there's no point in me asking ‘why has this happened to me?’

“I had to keep positive because being sad wasn’t going to change anything. So I just kind of stayed strong for it all.

“I used to be a lot more emotional before my diagnosis, and I'd cry over nothing. But I think it made me realise that my worries previously weren't real worries at all.

“I stayed strong for me, my family, and my friends. It could have been a lot worse.

“The fear of recurrence is something that I'm learning to live with because even though the cancer is gone and I'm in the clear, there's still a 30% chance that it could come back

“But it's also 70% that it won't, so that's just something that I've got to grab onto and hold.”

Megan started a new marketing job one week after surgery and is currently working from home.

To help raise awareness, she is running a fundraiser at Dartford FC on July 5, near where she went to school at the Leigh Academy.

Around 150 members of family and friends are expected to attend, and there will be a raffle, a DJ, and food on offer, and all the proceeds will be going to Bone Cancer Research Trust UK and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.

She has also set up a JustGiving page to raise money for the cancer charity, and donations can be made here.

“I'd love to raise awareness amongst people my age,” she added.

“I think it will be important at the fundraiser for me to speak to everyone my age and say, if your body doesn't feel right, get it checked.

“There's no point waiting – if I had waited, I might not be here today.

“It's just so important not to let doctors and your GP turn you away because you're young, because when something's not right, it's not right.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you, but just because you're young, that doesn't mean you're immune.”