May her story inspire us all to never give up no what.
Per Daily Mail:
A beauty queen has undergone cutting-edge surgery to allow her to use her ankle as her knee after having part of her leg amputated.
Jillian Williams, 20, from Odem, Texas, was a contestant in the glamorous world of Miss Teen USA beauty pageants and a talented volleyball player.
But her world came crashing down in February last year when she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma – a rare type of bone cancer.
In September 2015 Jillian began to experience pain in her knee while playing volleyball for Texas Lutheran University at a tournament, which she initial dismissed as tendonitis [inflammation of the tendon].
Jillian said: ‘My trainer said he thought it sounded like a torn meniscus [knee injury]. You can technically still play on that as long as you aren’t in too much pain. ‘So I played all season on it and the plan was to send me to the doctor and look at surgery options at the end of the season.’
Instead she opted for a ‘rotationplasty’, a procedure which required surgeons to remove 36cm of the middle portion of her leg, since the tumour was in her distal femur.
The foot, ankle and shin were then rotated 180 degrees and reattached to her upper leg to act as her knee joint – which then slips into a prosthetic lower leg.
As for her plans, she is back in the gym with the goal to be part of Team USA’s Paralympics women’s volleyball team. Jillian also wants to get her “beauty pageant” body back and compete in Miss Texas down the road.
Thank you for sharing your story Jillian and we are together with you in this fight against cancer.