What Instinct Told Her

“Cancer certainly had its way with my family”, Nicole said. 

Nicole’s son lost his battle with brain cancer which inspired her daughter to become a doctor, and Nicole to become a nurse. 

However, on the 8th of December 2024, Nicole was sitting on the couch when she discovered a mysterious lump in her thigh, and she knew as soon as she felt it that it was not good. 

“I took the next day off work and went to my GP. I got in for a scan really quickly, and at that point my instincts were telling me that something was wrong”, she said. 

When Nicole had her ultrasound, she could see the sarcoma on the screen and she knew instantly what she was looking at. 

Nicole quickly had surgery on the 19th of December, but when she woke up she still needed to wait for the pathology results. She was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve, however she had lost a considerable amount of nerves, tendons and muscles from her groin to her knee, which significantly reduced her mobility. 

Nicole was then diagnosed with undifferentiated pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a rare and aggressive high-grade sarcoma that presents in soft tissue. 

Nicole’s recovery required six weeks of radiation therapy, where she had to leave her family and move to Sydney. In this time, Nicole found hope in her previous love of going for a walk. 

“I started walking eight to ten kilometres a day”, Nicole continued, “and because I grew up in Sydney, I rediscovered the botanical gardens and I would go on these phenomenal walks”. 

“If I get really anxious about dying or recurrence of the disease, I just go for a walk,” she said. 

As a nurse, Nicole knew that cancers are not all the same, but she was still scared. When she was first diagnosed, Nicole thought of her life 15 years earlier when her son was diagnosed with brain cancer. 

So, Nicole made the decision not to Google her sarcoma. 

“Google can be a dangerous place, and a lot of it is not really relevant to the individual anyway,” Nicole said. 

Regardless, it was still petrifying. There were times in the middle of the night that Nicole found herself wondering if there was pain in her chest, and if the sarcoma had spread. 

In December of 2025, Nicole had a clear one year scan since discovering and removing her rhabdomyosarcoma, and she continues to go for a walk every day.