A YOUNG woman who underwent radical surgery using her left foot to create a knee has been given the devastating news that the cancer has returned.
Jordon Moody, 22, underwent a rotationplasy when surgeons amputated most of her thigh and twisted her foot so her toes were pointing backwards.
Her heel was put in the place of her knee joint after she was diagnosed with bone cancer for the second time.
Now, Miss Moody will undergo a full amputation of her left leg, including her original foot, after tests revealed the cancer had returned to the part of her thigh which had been left in place by the surgeons.
As she prepared to leave St James's Hospital in Leeds to head to Birmingham for the operation this week, Miss Moody said: "I already knew the cancer had come back before they told me the results of the biopsy.
"Wherever this cancer grows in the bone, they have to get rid and eliminate the bone because it just keeps coming back, so I'll have to have a full amputation.
"It's hard because after the rotationplasty, I was looking forward to walking again and I was waiting for my prosthesis but then the pain started and I was in agony so I knew."
Aspiring actress Miss Moody was studying at the Stella Adler School of Performing Arts in New York when doctors discovered she had cancer in her thigh.
She stayed in the US for a year for chemotherapy and an operation to remove the tumour before returning to Hessle, where her parents Lieca and Ivory live with her two sisters Jem, 23, and 16-year-old Tanika.
She learned the cancer had returned after suffering terrible pain in her leg during a visit to her grandmother in Germany in 2013 and was flown back to England.
Doctors realised the cancer had returned for the second time and offered Jordon the rotationplasty so a prosthetic limb could be fitted in the future, giving her a chance of walking again.
She underwent surgery at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham in July and was expecting to be fitted with the artificial limb at the end of the year.
However, in the run-up to Christmas, she developed agonising pains in her leg once more and doctors warned her the cancer could have returned.
She said: "I was waiting for the prosthesis when, one night, I was in my bed and this pain started. It was so bad, I couldn't move without it being agonising."
Miss Moody was taken to St James Hospital in Leeds for pain management while an MRI scan was carried out. The surgeon suspected a tumour and it was confirmed after a biopsy on New Year's Eve.
As well as having to undergo a full amputation, which will remove all of her thigh and her former lower limb and foot, Miss Moody has been told she can't have any more chemotherapy should the cancer return again.
"That's the hardest part," she said. "It wasn't that surprising when they told me it was a tumour and that I'd need a full amputation because I'd thought about that already.
"What threw me a bit was when they told me they can't give me any more chemotherapy in the future because my cancer fights back too much. Radiation therapy might be on the cards but I'm really hoping the amputation does work this time as I don't think I'll have many options after that."
Miss Moody's family travelled south to Birmingham yesterday with her ahead of her operation. While her father and sisters will travel back and forwards from Hull to Birmingham, her mother will stay by her bedside.
"I'm really hoping the amputation will do the job and it will stop it coming back altogether," said Miss Moody.
"I'm just trying to stay positive because there's really not much else I can do."
