Sarcoma Stories

2024 marked two years since Marina Ledesma’s first sarcoma diagnosis. It also happened to be the year she turned 50. Most people celebrate a milestone birthday with a party or meal with family and friends, or perhaps even an overseas trip. The Adelaide-based HR Business Partner commemorated these two important life events in a unique way.

Sarcoma can often be easily mistaken or misdiagnosed. For Alice Cochrane, what was first thought to be just a mosquito bite was, in fact, sarcoma.

When 37-year-old Jacqui noticed a lump on her foot, she thought her son had dropped something on her foot. Little did she know that the lump was something much more sinister.

When Kaela began experiencing reoccurring hip pains, she assumed it was due to her busy life, not realising that the pain was synovial sarcoma.

When Steph began to experience pain while exercising, she never expected the cause to be something as severe as Osteosarcoma.  

43-year-old Sarah never expected a pain on the right side of her lower back to be as serious as Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma.

Sarcoma is a rare cancer, it can happen to anyone at any time.

83-year-old Robin Hatfield – like many others– had only heard of the word sarcoma but was not aware of what it was before he was diagnosed with Angiosarcoma in early 2022. He discovered black lumps on the top of his scalp and went to his GP to get them checked out, but unfortunately, his GP could not identify the lumps. “He didn’t know what they could be, he suggested they may be hematomas or that I struck my head, but I couldn’t recall that, so we left that there” Robin recalls after his first visit.

In this webinar recording, we focus on the important role of general practitioners (GPs) in your sarcoma journey.

In this webinar recording, we highlighted the role of Rare Cancers Australia in supporting sarcoma patients and their families through their patient support services.

In this webinar recording, we highlighted the role of carers with a focus on challenges of being a carer, practical help, research on unmet needs of carers, resources and support for carers.

This is the incredible story of Maxwell’s osteosarcoma journey told by his mum, Julie. Maxi was diagnosed with localised osteosarcoma in his knee and underwent rotationplasty as one of his treatments.

Dr Susie Bae shares her insights about her work and her patients explaining why her work provides a window to some of life’s best and worst moments but is always “a great privilege”.