Doctors told the self-proclaimed ‘it girl’, 23, her sore shoulder was a sports injury and prescribed ‘rest and ibuprofen’… in fact it was a bone tumor the size of an avocado

When self-proclaimed ‘it girl’ Cat Holden felt a twinge in her shoulder, she assumed it was a simple sports injury and wouldn’t affect her lifestyle – and her doctors agreed.

Now she faces having her entire left shoulder removed after medics eventually discovered the source of the 23-year-old’s pain was a bone tumor the size of an avocado.

Mrs Holden, an assistant insurer from Ingatestone, Essex, has gone from a ‘happy-go-lucky’ lifestyle of working in London and holidays abroad to 24-hour care from her parents while she undergoes chemotherapy.

She said the cancer diagnosis was the “darkest day” of her life and that the treatment left her thinking, “I look like a goblin.”

“Getting cancer was a really pivotal point in my life because everything turned out happily and I was faced with something I never thought would happen,” she said.

‘It’s terrible to hear: at the age of 23 you will never be able to fully function with your shoulder again.

‘When I was referred to Macmillan and told I needed six to nine months of chemotherapy it was the darkest day of my life.’

Ms. Holden also faces possible fertility loss and has already developed a permanent hearing problem, tinnitus, as a result of the ongoing chemotherapy.

She first noticed the symptoms in March last year during a family adventure holiday in Great Yarmouth, after her left shoulder started shaking while rock climbing.

While the pain continued after coming off the wall, she dismissed the pain and thought she had only damaged the muscle.

But five months later the shoulder pain returned while she was swimming in Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex.

She said the pain became so bad she could barely keep her head above water.

This motivated her to make an appointment with her GP to determine the possible cause.

She recalled: ‘The doctor said it looked really inflamed.

‘But they couldn’t see anything else on the ultrasound, so I was diagnosed with tendonitis.’

Tendonitis is when a tendon becomes inflamed and swollen after an injury.

The problem causes joint pain and can affect mobility.

Mrs. Holden suspected it was more, possibly a tendon tear, but also followed the instructions and did some physical therapy.

“I was told it was an easy fix – I just needed rest and ibuprofen,” she said.

‘I also did some physio exercises via an app, once a week for six weeks.’

After completing physiotherapy, she decided to travel to Sydney, Australia for the ‘trip of a lifetime’.

But she noticed the shoulder pain returning after climbing the Sydney Bridge and skydiving.

However, the pain had not only returned, but had become even worse. The pain went from a simple ache to a pounding heartbeat that kept her awake at night.

“It was very clear to me that something was really wrong,” she said.

‘I came home from Australia in mid-November – I had no lumps, no bumps.

“But I couldn’t lift my left shoulder above a right angle.

‘I lay awake every night and felt a heartbeat in my shoulder.’

Ms Holden eventually had an MRI booked with a private company in January this year to hopefully determine the cause of the problem.

She said even while traveling to the appointment, she had no idea the severity of what they would find.

‘It was funny. On the way to the appointment, I said to my mother, “I hope I don’t need keyhole surgery or injections,” she said.

“We both just said it would have been very annoying.”

But after the scan and when she saw the consultant enter the room and shake her hand, she knew something was wrong.

“He said, ‘we found something very unusual in your shoulder: a tumor,’” she said.

Further tests revealed that Mrs Holden had a malignant giant cell tumour.

These are rare and usually grow in the long bones of the arms and legs. Only around 30 people in Britain are diagnosed each year.

Although they are aggressive and can grow quickly and damage bone, they are usually benign.

However, in rarer cases, and more tragically for Mrs. Holden, they can be malignant, meaning they are cancerous and have the potential to spread to other parts of the body.

Given her case, Ms. Holden was recommended to immediately begin a six- to nine-month course of chemotherapy, which she did.

I was told I could lose my hair and my hearing – and that my immune system would become so low that I would be susceptible to things like blood poisoning,” she said.

Two months after her treatment, she lost her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, and developed the hearing disorder tinnitus.

‘I no longer recognize myself in the mirror; I had long blond hair and was a healthy girl,” she said.

‘I underestimated the mental and physical struggles people have to go through.

‘I have days where I think I look like a goblin, I’m losing weight and I’m so pale.

‘Chemo makes me feel like I’ve been hit by a bus; I get nausea, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue and the most horrible mouth sores.”

Ms Holden has also been told that chemotherapy could harm her chances of becoming a mother in the future.

“I had a 40 to 60 percent chance that it would affect my fertility,” she said.

‘I had my eggs frozen on March 27, it was quite harrowing.’

While chemotherapy is still underway, another aspect of her cancer treatment is looming.

On June 11, Ms. Holden will undergo surgery to remove her entire shoulder and humerus (upper arm) and replace them with a metal prosthesis.

This will cause her to have lifelong mobility problems, such as not being able to lift her arm.

Ms Holden said although the prospect was daunting, she was looking forward to the future.

“I will carry the trauma of this with me forever, but I will appreciate life so much more after this,” she said.

According to data from Cancer Research UK, only half of patients with primary bone cancer live five years after their diagnosis.